A timely dialogue between words and images about a crucial moment in our recent history: the evolving journey to the apex of globalisation, before teetering towards its unravelling. This 412 page full-colour book was released just before the competing avalanche of crises and challenges of economic trade wars, police brutality and a global pandemic - for all of which it provides a context.
A combination of photographic documentary and written testimony, Charlie Koolhaas’ personal and humorous account is a record of the globalisation of our cultures and economies over the last two decades - as it impacts the daily lives of five linked global cities on different continents (London, Guangzhou, Lagos, Dubai, Houston) - cities in which she has either lived or worked.
Starting with her birthplace of London, Koolhaas explores the rapid changes taking place in these culturally vastly different metropolises that are being united by the influences of global trade and the evolution of a shared global culture.
The cultural overlaps that Charlie Koolhaas captures demonstrate how countries have become connected through the influence of immigrants, to reveal new forms of multiculturalism being invented across the world. In the Chinatown in Lagos and the Nigerian Churches in Guangzhou for instance, she records and describes the impact of the globe’s shifting economic power balance at a human scale, revealing both the alienation and the freedom that globalisation generates.
Koolhaas observes the world in motion without moralism, to reveal new potentials and tensions that are super-imposed onto ancient connections and polarities, to create a nuanced; almost jumbled view of the world in its current state. CITY LUST is the record of the slow-moving revolution of the west’s diminishing influence and the multiple interactions that are shaping a new world.
"These accounts, rich with poignancy, tension and an ample dose of humour, expose the unexpected commonalities between seemingly disparate cultures, and a global landscape rich with possibilities and rapid change."
- Wallpaper Magazine
“Through her photography, she chronicles some of the universal aesthetics in architecture, fashion and “in a kind of global culture that very much comes from America and then has its own versions everywhere in the world. That is almost like a style that allows us to understand and connect to each other. And at the same time, each place has these huge insurmountable differences,”
- WWD
"Rather than objective documentation, Koolhaas’s interventions carefully sift through clues in a human landscape and a multiculturalism that is more complex and deep-rooted than what the Western eye is willing to concede."
- Domus Magazine
"Photos of perfume bottles, ugly buildings, uglier highways, and other subjects might not convey why some people lust for cities, but they certainly describe how cities accommodate so many people of different religions, ethnicities, and levels of income... It's an ugly mess beautifully captured in Koolhaas's images and words.”
- A Daily Dose of Architecture Books
"Koolhaas has a refreshingly honest and democratic eye that assesses both rich and poor, with a particular concern for the role of minorities in each country."
-Photobook Journal
A timely dialogue between words and images about a crucial moment in our recent history: the evolving journey to the apex of globalisation, before teetering towards its unravelling. This 412 page full-colour book was released just before the competing avalanche of crises and challenges of economic trade wars, police brutality and a global pandemic - for all of which it provides a context.
A combination of photographic documentary and written testimony, Charlie Koolhaas’ personal and humorous account is a record of the globalisation of our cultures and economies over the last two decades - as it impacts the daily lives of five linked global cities on different continents (London, Guangzhou, Lagos, Dubai, Houston) - cities in which she has either lived or worked.
Starting with her birthplace of London, Koolhaas explores the rapid changes taking place in these culturally vastly different metropolises that are being united by the influences of global trade and the evolution of a shared global culture.
The cultural overlaps that Charlie Koolhaas captures demonstrate how countries have become connected through the influence of immigrants, to reveal new forms of multiculturalism being invented across the world. In the Chinatown in Lagos and the Nigerian Churches in Guangzhou for instance, she records and describes the impact of the globe’s shifting economic power balance at a human scale, revealing both the alienation and the freedom that globalisation generates.
Koolhaas observes the world in motion without moralism, to reveal new potentials and tensions that are super-imposed onto ancient connections and polarities, to create a nuanced; almost jumbled view of the world in its current state. CITY LUST is the record of the slow-moving revolution of the west’s diminishing influence and the multiple interactions that are shaping a new world.
"These accounts, rich with poignancy, tension and an ample dose of humour, expose the unexpected commonalities between seemingly disparate cultures, and a global landscape rich with possibilities and rapid change."
- Wallpaper Magazine
“Through her photography, she chronicles some of the universal aesthetics in architecture, fashion and “in a kind of global culture that very much comes from America and then has its own versions everywhere in the world. That is almost like a style that allows us to understand and connect to each other. And at the same time, each place has these huge insurmountable differences,”
- WWD
"Rather than objective documentation, Koolhaas’s interventions carefully sift through clues in a human landscape and a multiculturalism that is more complex and deep-rooted than what the Western eye is willing to concede."
- Domus Magazine
"Photos of perfume bottles, ugly buildings, uglier highways, and other subjects might not convey why some people lust for cities, but they certainly describe how cities accommodate so many people of different religions, ethnicities, and levels of income... It's an ugly mess beautifully captured in Koolhaas's images and words.”
- A Daily Dose of Architecture Books
"Koolhaas has a refreshingly honest and democratic eye that assesses both rich and poor, with a particular concern for the role of minorities in each country."
-Photobook Journal