20th C architecture : the structures that shaped the century / by Jonathan Glancey

Glancey, Jonathan

ISBN 10: 0879519126 / ISBN 13: 9780879519124

Published by Woodstock, N. Y. : Overlook Press, 1998

About this Item

Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dw, now mylar-sleeved. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered.; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 400 pages; Description: 400 p. : ill. ; 29 cm. Includes index. Subjects: Architecture, Modern --20th century --Architecture, Postmodern --Deconstructivism (Architecture). Summary: Twentieth-Century Architecture covers the entire spectrum of modern architecture. Every major movement of the craft is represented along with every major architect of the twentieth century, including Sir Edwin Lutyens, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Richard Rogers, Berthold Lubetikin, Eero Saarinen, Richard Meier, Frank Gehry, Alvar Aalto, Norman Foster, Antoni Gaudi and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Architecture illustrates the history of the twentieth century and the buildings and structures to be found in this book symbolize the diversity and scope of twentieth-century life, covering the political, industrial, environmental and traditional influences on modern building. Included within are landmarks as diverse as the Chrysler Building, the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, Le Corbusier's Unite de Habitation, London's Lloyd's Building and the Sydney Opera House. 2 Kg.

Seller Inventory # 155891

Bibliographic Details

• Title: 20th C architecture : the structures that shaped the century / by Jonathan Glancey
• Publisher: Woodstock, N. Y. : Overlook Press
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0879519126
• ISBN 13: 9780879519124
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

An indispensable guide to the structures of the modern age.

A celebration of the great buildings and structures of the modern age. This book traces every moment in architecture, from Modernism to Classicism, and details every major architect of the century past.

Review

Pushing aside the ignoble architectural rubble of the 20th century, Jonathan Glancey's book is a pantheon to the era's most memorable structures--370 in all. Keeping his text free of dehumanizing jargon, Glancey arranges his selections in eight sections: Arts and Crafts, Classicism, Organic, Modernism, Postmodernism, Robotic, Futures, and Cities--and what a world they collectively create. Within each chapter superbly reproduced photographs are accompanied by an informative and suitably fulsome or pithy paragraph from Glancey, who is fiercely critical of laziness yet always quick to applaud honesty and innovative vision. Instructive mistakes are included, as are buildings that no longer exist and a few that never will. This wide scope contributes to a diversely rewarding compendium.

The big guns are well represented--Horta, Rennie Mackintosh, Lloyd Wright, Behrens, Lutyens, Gaudí, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Rogers, and Foster--as are landmark structures, such as the Chrysler Building, the Guggenheim Museums, Sydney Opera House, and the "bowellist" Lloyd's Building in London. The 20th century was dominated by the moral quest of modernism, and that forms the core of this book and its largest contingent, defying van der Rohe's dictum "less is more." But if God is in the details, then the marvels of this collection are the lesser-known buildings that sit comfortably beside their more famous counterparts and give perspective to the ambitious "big picture." 20th Century Architecture: The Structures That Shaped the Century is inspiring and consistently enjoyable--like the very best of its contents--and is an invaluably erudite introduction to a towering subject. --David Vincent, Amazon.co.uk