dezeen

Dezeen have teamed up with publishers Carlton to give away five copies of Lost Buildings by Jonathan Glancey.

Described as “an elegy to places we will never see,” the 256-page book presents 100 buildings that have either been demolished or only ever existed in imagination.

Glancey examines buildings destroyed by war, natural disasters and political acts alongside those from myth, children’s stories and ambitious designs that were never built.

The buildings included are divided into nine chapters: Lost in Myth, Lost in Peace, Lost in War, Lost Too Soon, Acts of God, Political Losses, Lost in Dreams, Self-destruction and Left on the Drawing Board.

This competition has now closed.

The five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published at the bottom of this page and in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter.

Here’s some more information from Carlton:

–
LOST BUILDINGS
DEMOLISHED, DESTROYED, IMAGINED, REBORN

by Jonathan Glancey

Published in Hardback by Carlton Books in December 2008, at £30

An exploration of some of the worlds most beautiful buildings, some mythical, some never born and the rest demolished either by nature, politics, self-destruction, or…..

• A fascinating study of 100 buildings, some of which have vanished and some which never existed, from ancient times to the recent past.
• Reflects the growing awareness of the importance of preserving and restoring existing architectural treasures, as well as rebuilding and reconstruction
•  The leading writer on architectural history takes you on a magical journey to buildings, that in reality you never can visit!

Above: Interior of Pennsylvania Station, New York
Sunlight cast through the large windows of a vaulted hall in Pennsylvania Station plays across the columns on the wall. ca. 1911, New York City.
Date Photographed: ca. 1911
Creator Name: McKim, Mead and White
image © CORBIS

Have you ever wished that you could have seen King Solomon’s mighty Temple in Jerusalem or climbed to the top of the legendary Tower of Babel? What must it have been like to have paraded up and down the great glass galleries of the Crystal Palace in London in 1851? Why is the Euston Arch, demolished in 1961, still missed? What would buildings described in much loved books have been like if these had existed outside their author’s imaginations?

Above: Missile Warning Station in Fylingdale
An Royal Air Force officer stands next to the American-built Ballistic Missile Early Warning Station in Fylingdale, Yorkshire, England.
Date Photographed: September 1963
Image © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

Imagine walking through the labyrinthine corridors of Mervyn Peake’s mythical Gothic fortress Gormenghast, or visiting Toad Hall. And what of the current trend for reconstructing buildings which were destroyed in wartime or for political reasons? Lost Buildings is an invitation to visit buildings long vanished or those demolished within living history, some by dim politicians, others by war or “acts of God”, that we would pay good money and travel a long way to see, if only they existed, today. It looks, too, at buildings from literature, myth and children’s stories, and some lost opportunities – fantastic, ambitious designs that were never built. There are countless buildings that remain vivid in the collective memory, whether they were once real or were only ever imagined. Lost Buildings brings these together for the reader’s curiosity and delight.

Above: Euston Pillars
12th April 1954: The Neo-Classical entrance arch to London’s Euston station which was demolished in 1962.
(Photo by L. Blandford/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Jonathan Glancey is Architecture and Design Editor of the Guardian. He is a frequent commentator on radio and television. His previous publications include Carlton’s Modern Architecture, The Car and The Train, and Spitfire (Atlantic)- all bestsellers.

Congratulations to the winners! Eik Bjerregaard in Denmark, Rita Cadavez in Portugal, Adam Jackson in Australia, and Peter Kantor and Andrew Bazinski in the USA all won copies of Lost Buildings by Jonathan Glancey.

Didn’t win? Buy this book and others at the Dezeenbooks store
(in association with amazon.co.uk)