Modernism Without Rhetoric: Essays on the Work of Alison and Peter Smithson - Hardcover

Webster, Helena

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1854904957 ISBN 13: 9781854904959

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1997

Synopsis

The work together of Alison and Peter Smithson became known as the paradigm of the British New Brutalist aesthetic.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Essays on the work of Alison and Peter Smithson
Edited by Helena Webster

Since the 1950s the complex and intellectually dense work of the Smithsons has attracted both acclaim and controversy. Alison (1928-94) and Peter Smithson (1923-) were responsible for three of the most important buildings in post-war Britain: Hunstanton Secondary Modern School, Norfolk (1950-54); The Economist Building, St James's, London (1964); and the Robin Hood Gardens housing scheme, Tower Hamlets, London (1964).

Through their involvement with the Independent Group and Team 10, and with their writings, exhibitions, and built work, the Smithsons contributed significantly to the development of architectural thinking in Britain. In their quest for a more 'honest' architecture - what they referred to as 'poetry without rhetoric' - the Smithsons were champions of the New Brutalism, believing that buildings should be determined by their specificity of their situation: geography, existing fabric and cultural tradition. Their studies of the unconscious order and 'spatial presence' of vernacular settlements and structures had a profound impact on their architecture.

Modernism without Rhetoric, the first ever collection of critical writings on the work of the Smithsons, addresses all aspects of their work. In a series of essays from a distinguished selection of contributors, the shifting theoretical preoccupations of the Smithsons are traced from their first Mies van der Rohe-inspired project at Hunstanton, through the Brutalist projects of the sixties to the recent exhibition work for the furniture manufacturers, Tecta.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1854904957
• ISBN 13: 9781854904959
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 225