James Way reads Pornotopia: An Essay on Playboy's Architecture and Biopolitics by Beatriz Preciado.
Archi-porn, a contraction of architectural pornography, is bandied about for those publications and websites that feature lush photos of buildings and spaces—full frontals, 3/4 close ups, subtle details—accompanied by scant captions. I like those. They encourage fantasizing about projects and they expose a lot of projects quickly: form, landscape, lighting, materials, furniture—the things we think about when flipping pages. Occasionally there’s a good article too.
Eschewing images for words, Beatriz Preciado peeks in on Playboy and its impact on postwar American culture, particularly through its use of architecture. In the decidedly academic Pornotopia: An Essay on Playboy’s Architecture and Biopolitics, Preciado follows the origins of Hugh Hefner’s empire and its focus on architecture and interior design as reinforcing his agenda for the cool, hip postwar generation. Though he published stories, articles, and interviews, Preciado contends that Hefner targeted white, middle class, heterosexual male lifestyle through a focused multimedia campaign featuring architecture and interior design.