Media Houses: Architecture, Media and the Production of Centrality

In much recent theory, the media are described as ephemeral, ubiquitous, and de-localized. Yet the activity of modern media can be traced to spatial centers that are tangible enough – some even monumental. This book offers multidisciplinary and historical perspectives on the buildings of some of the world’s major media institutions. Paradoxically, as material and aesthetic manifestations of «mediated centers» of power, they provide sites to the siteless and solidity to the immaterial. The authors analyse the ways that architectural form and organization reflect different eras, media technologies, ideologies, and relations with the public in media houses from New York and Silicon Valley to London, Moscow, and Beijing.