Modern Architecture Through Case Studies 1945 to 1990 - Hardcover

Blundell Jones, Peter; Canniffe, Eamonn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 075066374X ISBN 13: 9780750663748

Publisher: Routledge, 2007

Synopsis

Once again, new interpretations are presented of some of the most famous architecture of the period. Work by lesser-known architects, whose influence and role have been overlooked by conventional histories of the subject, is discussed. The case study structure allows each example to be discussed and used as a springboard to explore different theoretical approaches. Filled with beautiful photographs, plans and architect's drawings, this is a clear and accessible discussion on a period of architecture that engages many questions still under debate in architecture today.

About this title

Review:

Peter Blundell Jones holds a particular place among British architectural historians. Anti-establishment by instinct, his work tends to champion the underdog, the unsung hero. In his earlier writings this meant attacking the Modernist orthodoxy formed by Sigfried Giedion and Nikolaus Pevsner, with its fetish for the abstract tendencies of the Neues Bauen (New Building). In his efforts to show there were other approaches to Modernism, Blundell Jones greatly enhanced our appreciation of figures like Hugo Häring and Hans Scharoun, who d been unfairly expunged from the canon. More recently Blundell Jones has concentrated on unpicking the impact of critical theory on British architectural writing since the 1990s. He does this by conducting a forensic study of completed buildings, using these as the acid test of architects design ideas and their impact on clients, users and cities. His first volume of case studies looked mainly at examples of inter-war Modernism (AJ 13.03.03); now, helped by a colleague, Eamonn Canniffe, he takes the same approach to post-war architecture... ...What we are presented with instead are 18 fascinating investigations, beginning with Case Study House No 8 in Pacific Palisades, by Charles and Ray Eames, and travelling through in chronological order to Venturi Scott Brown s National Gallery extension in Trafalgar Square. Blundell Jones generally talks about continental European buildings typified by a softer, organic vision of Modernism, usually set delicately in a historical urban context. Canniffe takes on harder-edged, technologically derived designs which often sit in opposition to their surroundings, including Foster s Willis Faber Dumas offices in Ipswich and Rogers and Piano s Pompidou Centre in Paris. The book succeeds best with those buildings where Blundell Jones sheer knowledge and enthusiasm for the architects shine through. His chapters on Aldo van Eyck s Orphanage in Amsterdam and Gunter Behnisch s Munich Olympics complex are particularly illuminating. The former is especially strong because Blundell Jones doesn t shirk the inherent limitation of Dutch Structuralism; that is, by seeking to design for the role of the user in such prescriptive detail, the approach unwittingly became the handmaiden of the worst institutional tendencies of the welfare state. --Architects Journal

Post-War architecture has recently been getting the thorough critical chewing it deserves, and this book digests 18 tasty morsels, following Peter Blundell Jones s earlier book along the same lines. This time he has a collaborator, and the individual studies are credited separately. Blundell Jones goes for the well-stewed, meaty dishes mostly German, van Eyck or members of Team 10 which are in some ways the core of the whole book, and help to situate the individual members in a wider field. Canniffe prefers the sharp-tasting and brittle, including examples of hi-tech, from the Eames House through Willis Faber to the Pompidou Centre, but he also covers Scarpa, Eisenmann and Venturi. The double act works well, and the authors unite in framing the book with broader thoughts on shifting idea during the period under review... ...The book has obvious pedagogic intent, and might at moments be deemed academic in its concerns, but it is refreshing to read such jargon-free criticism based on substantial information. --Building Design 4 star review

Where this new volume scores is in its intelligent and collective overview which cuts across the ubiquitous monographs and theoretical treatises, offering a bit of each while at the same time providing an architect's insight into the built form. Like David Wild's collage on the dust jacket this book includes a little bit of everything. I look forward to the next one in the series. --C20 Winter 07/08

About the Author:

By Peter Blundell Jones, Professor of Architecture, University of Sheffield,United Kingdom; and Eamonn Canniffe, Lecturer, School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 075066374X
• ISBN 13: 9780750663748
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256