Kate Wagner

The artists of our time, with their ruin-porn coffee-table books, offer the world a glossy, anesthetized image of abandoned infrastructure from Chernobyl to Detroit.

The comment lament misses crucial context about the style trends and building materials of the past.

Fashionable minimalism replaced plush opulence. That’s a recipe for commotion.

Architectural history in an era of capitalist ruin.