Defining Urban Design: CIAM Architects and the Formation of a Discipline, 1937-69

Eric Mumford

ISBN 10: 0300138881 / ISBN 13: 9780300138887

Published by Yale University Press, 2009

262pp, illustrated throughout in colour and b&w. A Fine 1st Impression copy in a Near Fine dust wrapper which displays just light traces of surface wear. Please see five pictures attached for a closer look at condition. Note: Owing to 1.3kg weight an adjustment to shipping charge may be requested for International ordering. Seller Inventory # ABE-1683803455365

Synopsis:

In this meticulously researched book, Eric Mumford traces how members of the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM), such as Walter Gropius, Josep Lluis Sert, and their American associates, developed the discipline of urban design from the 1940s to the 1960s. Now widely known, this field has had significant influence in university departments and building projects around the world, but its roots in the urbanism of CIAM are not well understood. CIAM proposed a new type of architecture, one that drew on the strategies of both modern art and engineering to promote efficiency and rational city planning. Mumford challenges the idea that this modern urbanism only resulted in the clearing of historical neighbourhoods in favour of the public housing that would famously fail. Rather, Mumford argues, CIAM goals were instrumental in forming the field of urban design, and it was the rejection of these goals by politicians and bureaucrats, rather than their implementation, that led to the now familiar and lamentable results of urban renewal and metropolitan sprawl.

About the Author: Eric Mumford is associate professor of architecture and art history at Washington University in St. Louis.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Defining Urban Design: CIAM Architects and ...
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication Date: 2009
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
Edition: 1st Edition