In his new book, 'The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War', Robert Bevan examines why significant architecture is so often targeted in armed conflict.
"Architectural destruction is like a drug. It's addictive. It's instant proof of change, of authority. That's why it is so popular. And that's why it can become so rabid. Carthage was not only destroyed by the Romans: its site was scattered with salt to make sure that nothing ever rose again. It's as if in the pursuit of blood and soil we have to burrow deep to the earth's core to fulfill a literally fundamentalist belief in the genius loci. In Israel and Palestine today, so loaded is the land with symbols, so rabid is the conflict, even gentle archaeology and town planning become weapons."
Read the full story: Rocked to our foundations
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City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello