Sorry, Out of Gas, Architecture’s Response to the 1973 Oil Crisis

The publication of an exhibit about the ways designers and builders (and industry, culture, and politics) reacted to the first contemporary oil crisis, in 1973. Though the book/exhibit brings together some interesting and relevant architectural examples, graphics and publications, like the journals of the pioneering Underground Space Center at the University of Minnesota, it is most effective at conveying the sense of the enthusiasm and creativity of those times, which dissipated as the years went on (the solar panels that Jimmy Carter installed on the roof of the White house, were removed by Ronald Reagan), until we find ourselves there again now, in a sense, picking up where we left off. Another timely, canny, and savvy production from the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal.
Giovanna Borasi and Mirko Zardini, editors, Canadian Center for Architecture, 2007.