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Edwina Attlee, Phineas Harper and Maria Smith, eds. Gross Ideas: Tales of Tomorrow's Architecture (The Architecture Foundation, 2019, 208pp, £12.90)
Gross Ideas is a collection of sf stories that accompanied the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019. As Hanna Dencik Peterson and Nina Berre point out in the preface, it is not an exhibition catalogue but rather 'works by established and emerging writers, architects and engineers.' The goal of the book is to 'challenge the way we disseminate architecture', and to provide readers with alternative possible future scenarios in light of the current climate crisis, although some of the stories also deal with more preferable futures (those with a utopian stance) and probable futures (those slightly more dystopian). The collection aims also to challenge readers to think otherwise, as is common in the science Action genre. As Phineas Harper writes in the introduction, 'it has become clear that society needs new stories' and challenge existing narratives on 'endless economic growth'.
The collection contains seventeen contributions, ranging from end-of-theworld-scenarios ('You wanted this' by Lev Bratishenko) to utopian sustainable futures...