Sverre Fehn and the City: Rethinking Architecture's Urban Premises

Stephen M. Anderson

ISBN 10: 1032366516 / ISBN 13: 9781032366517

Published by Taylor and Francis Ltd, GB, 2023

About this Item

The urban attentions of Pritzker Laureate Sverre Fehn (1924-2009) are extensive, but as yet virtually unexplored. This book examines ten select projects to illuminate Fehn's approach to the city, the embodiment of that thinking in his designs, and the broader lessons those efforts offer for better understanding the relationship between architecture and urban life, with unignorable implications for emergent urban architecture and its address of sociological and ecological crises. Wary of large-scale planning proposals or the erasure of existing urban patterns, Fehn offered an uncommon and profoundly vibrant approach to urbanism at the scale of the single architectural project. His writings, constructed buildings, competition entries, and lectures suggest opportunities for reinvigorating architecture's engagement with the city, and provoke a rethinking of concepts foundational to its theorization. What is the nature of urbanity? What is the relationship of urbanity to the natural world? What is the role of architecture in the provision and sustenance of urban life? While exploring this territory will expand our knowledge of an architect central to key developments of late modernism, the range of the book and the arguments developed therein delineate far broader aims: a fuller understanding of architecture's urban promise.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781032366517

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Sverre Fehn and the City: Rethinking Architecture's Urban Premises
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd, GB
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1032366516
• ISBN 13: 9781032366517
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 460 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The urban attentions of Pritzker Laureate Sverre Fehn (1924–2009) are extensive, but as yet virtually unexplored. This book examines ten select projects to illuminate Fehn’s approach to the city, the embodiment of that thinking in his designs, and the broader lessons those efforts offer for better understanding the relationship between architecture and urban life, with unignorable implications for emergent urban architecture and its address of sociological and ecological crises. Wary of large-scale planning proposals or the erasure of existing urban patterns, Fehn offered an uncommon and profoundly vibrant approach to urbanism at the scale of the single architectural project. His writings, constructed buildings, competition entries, and lectures suggest opportunities for reinvigorating architecture’s engagement with the city, and provoke a rethinking of concepts foundational to its theorization. What is the nature of urbanity? What is the relationship of urbanity to the natural world? What is the role of architecture in the provision and sustenance of urban life? While exploring this territory will expand our knowledge of an architect central to key developments of late modernism, the range of the book and the arguments developed therein delineate far broader aims: a fuller understanding of architecture’s urban promise.

About the Author

Stephen M. Anderson is an associate professor in Architecture and Environmental Design in the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University, Philadelphia, where he teaches architectural theory and graduate design.