Light, Air and Openness: Modern Architecture Between the Wars - Hardcover

Paul Overy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500342423 ISBN 13: 9780500342428

Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2008

Synopsis

HardCover Pub Date: 2008. Pages: 256 Publisher: Thames & Hudson. The origins of the spectacular geometric forms and sparkling surfaces of modern architecture from 1918 to 1939 In the first half of the twentieth century a new kind of architecture appeared across Europe and North America. characterized by plain. often pure white walls; wide windows; flat roofs; and prominent balconies. terraces. and roof gardens. From houses to hospitals. the new architecture featured large expanses of glass and was constructed from steel and reinforced concrete-or designed to look that way-and inspired by a desire to be functional. hygienic. universal. democratic ....

About this title

Review:

'Excellent... a fascinating story, economically and elegantly told. Overy has produced an important alternative history of our towns and cities'
-- The Sunday Times

'Plenty of detail and anecdote... this book and the themes it covers are as relevant today as in 1925'
-- The Financial Times Magazine

Synopsis:

This groundbreaking book examines the relationship between the modernist architecture of the 1920s and 1930s and that eras preoccupations with health, cleanliness, fresh air and sunshine, exploring how utopian notions of the clean machine and the hygienist movement inspired the pure geometric forms and sparkling surfaces of early modernist buildings. Anyone with an interest in architecture and/or modernism will find this original approach to a popular theme both engaging and enlightening.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0500342423
• ISBN 13: 9780500342428
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256