The Architecture of Transit is a photographic book by Sue Barr, published by Hartmann Books in 2019. Between the Alps and Naples, motorways cross national and political borders and often follow routes once traveled by northern Romantics on the Grand Tour in search of arcadian and sublime landscapes. Barr used a large-format camera to photograph motorway megastructures — concrete bridges, ramps, galleries, and tunnels — within the landscapes and urban spaces they cross. The book presents these structures as architecture to be looked at rather than as infrastructure passed at speed.
The publisher describes it as Barr’s first monographic publication. Barr is a photographer with a sustained interest in concrete and Brutalist architecture, and the book’s carefully constructed photographs treat motorway architecture with sustained visual attention. The project follows historical 18th-century routes from the Swiss Alps to Naples and connects highly complex topographies and urban conditions. The publisher’s description frames the subject as a doubled sublime: the historical experience of untamed nature sought by Grand Tour travelers, and an accelerated yet calm sublime of concrete megastructures.
The volume measures 24.5 by 27 centimeters and runs to 96 pages, with approximately 60 illustrations. It is printed in English, German, and Italian. David Heathcote and Davide Papotti contributed texts; Sue Barr is the photographer. Graphic design is by Daly & Lyon, London, according to the publisher. The publisher’s title is The Architecture of Transit; some catalog records include a longer subtitle describing the search for the sublime in motorway architecture between the Alps and Naples.
