Travel to the World’s Best Lost and Restored Buildings

There are few things we love more at the Beast than things thought lost. We have a whole series called Lost Masterpieces that dives into works of art that were destroyed or never completed. We’ve also talked in the past about how nowadays, so much of discovery travel isn’t unexplored places but those that have been forgotten.

That’s why few books this spring got us as excited as the latest from Phaidon, Ruin and Redemption in Architecture by Dan Barasch. And thus why it’s the latest selection for our twice-a-month series on gorgeous travel-related coffee table books, Just Booked. The book with its snazzy half-cover in reflective gold is divided into three parts. The first dives into places that are gone--from the Hall of Nations in New Delhi to the Singer Building in NYC. The second section focuses on those that are still standing, but have been abandoned--from the Torre de David in Caracas to the Council of Ministries in Georgia. And the final, and perhaps most fun for travelers, section focuses on once abandoned places that have been redeemed by designers and architect with vision. Think the Grain Silo Complex (now the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art and the iconic Silo Hotel) in Cape Town or the former Laverstoke Mill in Hampshire, England which is no the Bombay Sapphire Distillery.

So whether you enjoy journeying to places where your imagination can act like AR and recreate a lost masterpiece, you love abandoned places, or you have a passion for creative reuse, this book is right for you.

Ruin and Redemption in Architecture by Dan Barasch Published by Phaidon (On Amazon for $37.39)