Kairos, Quarterly Update September 2002
Review by Professor Keith Critchlow

A frog jumps into a pot of water which is gradually being heated…as the water gets warmer, the frog adjusts its body temperature and continues to adjust to the increasing water temperature until, ultimately, the frog is boiled alive.
Like the frog we keep adjusting and reacting to increasing health and ecological hazards. This is how we satisfy our demands for more material comforts, greater convenience and easier living.

The Boiled Frog Syndrome presents compelling evidence that the source of many of the West’s diseases of civilisation can be traced to the modern built environment, our increasing exposure to electrochemical radiation and the indiscriminate use of untested advanced technologies.
Already, the growing demand for alternative, holistic medical treatments, and the popularity of Feng Shui, indicates that the public is sensing the need for a harmonious way of living. Our future wellbeing will depend on our endeavours to bring about fundamental changes to combat everyday environmental hazards.

The Boiled Frog Syndrome is an essential urban survival guide that shows all of us what we can do to improve our urban environment.
In 1984 Thomas Saunders broke free of his successful London firm in order to write, explore and understand what it means to be an architect in the holistic sense of the word.

If people want to know the whys and wherefores of the intrinsic misunderstandings that are at the heart of modern architecture then they would do well to read this book. When architects thought they were looking after the body in a certain way, Thomas points out that this is the opposite of what happens. Thomas himself is a good example of someone who has turned around in his understanding of the architectural world.


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