The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture: The Uncompleted Project - Hardcover

St John Wilson, Colin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1854904124 ISBN 13: 9781854904126

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1995

Synopsis

In the whole history of architecture there was never a period of such vitality, range of invention and generosity of spirit as that which followed the peace in 1918. With the foundation of the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM) ten years later, this jolting energy was reduced to Le Corbusier's theory based on the technology of industrialised mass-production. At that moment a resistance movement against the CIAM developed. By examining the work of Hugo Haering, Hans Scharoun, Alvar Aallo, Gunnar Asplund, Giancarlo de Carlo, Aldo van Eyck, Eileen Gray, R.M. Schindler and Frank Lloyd Wright, Colin St John Wilson identifies this common strand of opposition to the CIAM movement and a body of work across the world which now demands proper recognition as the other tradition. He outlines the theoretical status of this tradition and uses case studies to compare and contrast a work of the other tradition with a work of the CIAM doctrine, highlighting the success of each project. Several example including Baker House, MIT (1948), the Philharmonic Berlin are measured against more orthodox modern buildings by Le Corbusier, and Walter Gropius and others. These comparisons illustrate how the works of the other tradition have gained greater credence and success in practice than the built projects of the CIAM.

About this title

About the Author

Colin St John Wilson is Professor Emeritus in Architecture, University of Cambridge, and has taught on both sides of the Atlantic, as a visiting professor at Yale in 1960, 1964 and 1983 and MIT in 1970 and 1971. He first became Professor of Architecture at Cambridge in 1975. He is the author of Reflections on Architecture, Oxford, 1992. He is the architect of the British Library, London.

From the Inside Flap

Colin St John Wilson The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture The Uncompleted Project In the revision of theories of modern architecture, the research of Professor Colin St John Wilson into the underlying themes of the influential leaders of modern design in Europe has opened new discourse. In this book Wilson has consolidated such new evidence into a comprehensive argument for 'the other tradition of modernism'. Optimistically, he qualifies the considerable body of work by these pioneers of the modern as 'the incomplete project'. The message is that the canons of the period, once revised and adapted, extend through the work of new generations of architects into the next century. Professor Wilson's book opens new frontiers while abandoning those which have become obsolete in terms of the continuing tradition of the modern, and will be certain to inspire a new generation of architects and students alike.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1854904124
• ISBN 13: 9781854904126
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1