About this book Climate change and the inevitability of sea level rise will require much more
of us than simply pulling back from the coastline. The thesis of Weston Wright's More Water
Less Land New Architecture is that we need to start thinking in an entirely different way about
the relationship of cities to waterfront sites and of the relationship of buildings to water
which means rethinking many of architecture's implicit premises. If architecture has been
confrontational with water-think bold towers erected beside the sea as if to dare the water to
challenge them-Wright's argument is that we will need to be modest accommodating and
accepting of the power and presence of water if our cities are to survive. He knows that nature
is stronger than we are and that best chance mankind has to build successfully will be to
build with not against the reality of water. This is an important book not least because its
quiet sober tone balances natural history with architectural history and reaches across the
world to show examples of architecture that accommodates to the water ranging from small
vernacular houses on stilts to huge megastructures anchored like islands in the sea. Although
Wright's argument transcends aesthetics or style his book is in the end a case for the
strength that comes from restraint and perhaps even for the lasting power of gentleness. Paul
Goldberger The New School's Joseph Urban Professor of Design Weston Wright has put together a
truly valuable thought provoking and original collection of ideas stories and images that
are designed to make us more comfortable with living near on and with water in the coming
decades. He has managed to encapsulate his insights into concise illustrative presentations
that flow into each other making his book short compact and compelling. In this book Wright
is paving the way or rather building a bridge into an emerging coastal architecture and
coastal urbanism that he already seems comfortable and familiar with urging us to catch up
with him and to sail along for the adventure. This book is a wonderful exhibit of realistic
down-to-earth evidence-based futurism. Shlomo Angel Professor of City Planning The Marron
Institute of Urban Management at New York University
