'Baku: Oil and Urbanism' is the first architectural study of the relationship between oil and urbanism. Its focus is Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and formerly part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Since the late 19th century, oil and urbanism have been intertwined in the spaces of the city. Later, Baku was the site of one of the most spectacular experiments in Soviet urban and infrastructural design - "Neft Dashlari," the first off-shore drilling facility in the world, a city built on trestles in the Caspian Sea. Today, Baku is undergoing its second major oil boom. The book examines how urban design, planning, and architecture have dealt with the issue of oil in varying political conditions. Working with maps and archival photographs, the book analyses sites, buildings, urban fabric, plans to understand the evolution of the city. AUTHOR: Eve Blau is adjunct professor of the history of urban form at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Previously director of the architecture degree programs at the GSD and curator of exhibitions and publications at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, she has written extensively on modern architecture, urbanism, and the post-socialist city. ILLUSTRATIONS: 700
