{"id":67104,"date":"2025-08-01T13:12:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T13:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/totems-and-other-essays\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T18:10:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:10:27","slug":"totems-and-other-essays","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/totems-and-other-essays\/","title":{"rendered":"Totems and Other Essays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Totems and Other Essays<\/em><\/strong> brings together 14 texts by architect, historian, and critic Ir&eacute;n&eacute;e Scalbert. Written between 1998 and 2025, they reflect nearly three decades of critical engagement with architecture and its cultural contexts. Ranging in length and register&mdash;from concise meditations to extended analytical essays&mdash;the collection captures the evolution of Scalbert&rsquo;s thinking as a critic, teacher, and participant in architectural discourse.<br \/>\nOrganised thematically into sections on buildings, cities, lectures, and theory, <strong><em>Totems and Other Essays<\/em><\/strong> traces a loosely autobiographical arc.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier pieces echo Scalbert&rsquo;s formative years in London during a period of architectural ferment marked by the work of James Stirling, Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers, as well as his close association with a generation of contemporaries including Tony Fretton, Adam Caruso and Peter St John, and Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald (6a architects). Later texts expand outward, both geographically and conceptually, as Scalbert brings a speculative and at times personal lens to questions of urbanism, nature, and meaning in contemporary architecture. The book culminates in <em>Lives of a Critic<\/em>, a postscript that offers candid thoughts on the vocation of architectural criticism in the 21st century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new collection of 14 essays by French-British architectural historian and critic Ir&eacute;n&eacute;e Scalbert, reflecting nearly three decades of critical engagement with architecture and its cultural contexts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":74673,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[5559],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-67104","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-architecture-landscape-design","7":"author-by-author-irenee-scalbert","8":"publisher-park-books","10":"first","11":"instock","12":"shipping-taxable","13":"purchasable","14":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Totems and Other Essays - ACC Art Books UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Title: Totems and Other Essays, Pages: 184 Pages, Publish Date: 17th Mar 2026, Author: Irenee Scalbert, ISBN: 9783038604624. A new collection of 14 essays by French-British architectural historian and critic Ir&eacute;n&eacute;e Scalbert, reflecting nearly three decades of critical engagement with architecture and its cultural contexts.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/totems-and-other-essays\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Totems and Other Essays - ACC Art Books UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Title: Totems and Other Essays, Pages: 184 Pages, Publish Date: 17th Mar 2026, Author: Irenee Scalbert, ISBN: 9783038604624. A new collection of 14 essays by French-British architectural historian and critic Ir&eacute;n&eacute;e Scalbert, reflecting nearly three decades of critical engagement with architecture and its cultural contexts.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/totems-and-other-essays\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ACC Art Books UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ACCArtBooks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-18T18:10:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@accartbooks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/totems-and-other-essays\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/totems-and-other-essays\/\",\"name\":\"Totems and Other Essays - ACC Art Books UK\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/totems-and-other-essays\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/uk\/book\/totems-and-other-essays\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/app\/uploads\/books\/9783038604624-04-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-01T13:12:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-18T18:10:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"Title: Totems and Other Essays, Pages: 184 Pages, Publish Date: 17th Mar 2026, Author: Irenee Scalbert, ISBN: 9783038604624. 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