Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture - Softcover

Goldhagen, Sarah Williams

4.17

12 ratings by Goodreads

9780262571654: Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture

Softcover

ISBN 10: 026257165X ISBN 13: 9780262571654

Publisher: MIT Press, 2002

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The two decades after the Second World War are typically viewed as an inchoate interregnum between an expiring modernism and an incipient post-modernism. Yet this tidy narrative tells only half the story, leaving out a second development, an evolving and powerful modernism. The essays here reveal that a wide range of postwar architects and theorists--including Saarinen and Rudofsky in the United States; ATBAT-Afrique in Morocco; Price and the Smithsons in England; Bakema in Holland; and the Metabolists in Japan--were determined to renew rather than abandon the legacy of modernism. Presenting new research, these essays analyze an individual or movement that grappled with modernism in response to developments within and outside the architectural profession. They reveal a nexus of pre-occupations that dominated discourse of the postwar era, including authenticity, place, individual freedom, and popular culture. In addition, the introduction and coda discuss the critical themes of postwar architecture and propose a framework for conceptualizing architectural modernism and its evolution after the war. Together, the book's essays remap the emerging field of postwar architectural studies, refocusing attention on modernist ideas and work that have had a critical, ongoing impact on architectural culture. Copublished with the Canadian Centre for Architecture

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Review:

"The collection brings together a broad range of projects and architects, many of which have not been subject to scholarly analysis. This is a sufficient accomplishment, but the editors aim for more; they propose a broad theoretical framework for pre- and post-World War II Modernism." --Diane Ghirardo, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

Synopsis:

The two decades after the Second World War are typically viewed as an interregnum between an expiring modernism and an incipient postmodernism. Yet this tidy narrative tells only half the story leaving out a second, concurrently developing trend in an insurgent modernism. The 12 essays in "Anxious Modernisms" reveal that a wide range of postwar architects and theorists -including Neutra, Saarinen and Rudofsky in the United States; ATBAT-Afrique; the Italian Neo-Realists; Alison and Peter Smithson in England; and the Metabolists in Japan - were united in their determination to renew rather than abandon the legacy of 20th-century modernism. Each essay, presenting new research, analyzes an individual or movement that sought to reconceptualize modernism in response to developments both within and outside the architectural profession. They reveal a nexus of preoccupations that dominated the discourse of the postwar era. These include calls for architecture to create an identifiable sense of place, to address new social phenomena such as consumerism, and to advance individual freedom in the democratic state.

Together, these essays remap the emerging field of postwar architectural studies, refocusing attention on work that has had a critical, lasting impact on architectural culture in the years after 1945.

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