Antifascist Architecture

“The book is a timely anti-fascist wake-up call. [ … ] The scholars masterfully blend architectural history and theory, philosophy, and political economy into a kind of standard work on anti-fascist aesthetics. A pioneering academic achievement, it is required reading not only for critical urbanists of all backgrounds, opening up entirely new dimensions. What makes this work—excellently documented, richly illustrated with Lane Rick’s red chalk drawings, and titled in Gothic script in the spirit of Laibach’s “over-affirmation” of fascist iconology—so useful is that it does not stop at a defensive battle cry, but outlines a theoretical concept of its field” Ingo Arend, taz

“The fact that the architects profiled are not widely taught is pedagogical malpractice, especially at a moment when the affordability and housing crises are creating public demand for more radical design and policy changes from their architectural successors. What emerges is a clear and inspirational survey, and these lessons are powerful guardrails against the nihilism and hopelessness that comes from not knowing the history and victories of past struggles.” Zach Mortice, The Architect’s Newspaper

“ […] brings together architects, artists, designers, and buildings, though dissimilar, to define the ‘antifascist avant-garde continuum.’ ” Cristina Cimato, Esquire

“Just as fascism advances through different historical periods, antifascism, too, works in a continuum. This timeless volume by Daniel Jonas Roche and Andrew Santa Lucia reminds us about those architects who, at personal or professional risk, have resisted and confronted fascism. Antifascist Architecture works as a hopeful reminder that fighting fascism is not a lonely practice and that, in the history of resistance, we are not alone.” Cruz García and Nathalie Frankowski, A Manual of Anti-Racist Architecture Education

“This deeply thoughtful and well-researched examination of antifascist architecture couldn’t be published at a more relevant time. The proactive territories it explores include defeating the roots of power-driven systems of oppression; how liberated social, psychological, and administrative visions can succeed; what is required of scholars and theorists for enduring opposition to fascist manifestos; and more. It’s an important book and I highly recommend it for a global readership.” James Wines, SITE

“Antifascist Architecture is spirited, angry, and hideously timely, falling onto our shelves amid a normalized fascist consolidation, from the Oval Office to the Kremlin to Beit Aghion and beyond. Readers will feel prompted to reflect on antifascist built formations in the coalescing present, from the Dnipro River to the Red Sea. Let this tome function as a powder keg for a new counter-canon of antifascist architectural action to crystallize; for movements, forms, and struggles to coalesce.” Michal Murawski, University College London

“Absolutely needed in these times of cowardice, this groundbreaking work dismantles the ‘fascist architecture industrial complex’ while mapping the architects and buildings that embody resistance, revealing an antifascist continuum that academia has largely ignored. Against the wordlessness and chameleonism of our profession, Antifascist Architecture is an essential study that provides concrete embodied examples for trade unionism, anarchist material practice, and trauma-informed design—proving that another architecture is possible, if not urgent.” Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, A Moratorium on New Construction

“Few books capture how power, repression, and resistance are literally built into our world the way Antifascist Architecture does. Rather than lingering on fascist monuments, it uncovers the forgotten builders, planners and organizers who turned the structures of daily life into tools of liberation. At a moment when authoritarianism is again reshaping public space, we desperately need this reminder of how antifascist struggles are more than a rejection of oppressive spaces—they’re an imaging of something else entirely. It’s a sharp, inspiring reminder that antifascism is something we build—and that all of us can be architects of a more just future.” Will Potter, Little Red Barns: Hiding the truth from farm to table