Architecture Today

by James M. Steele

With the collapse of Modernism in the 1960s, architecture has fragmented and evolved in many different directions, each driven by its own ideologies and theories. This book sets out a clear and comprehensive guide to the prominent styles and movements, tracing the work of the main protagonists of contemporary architecture. Architecture Today  is divided thematically into 16 chapters, offering an incisive critique of the predominant trends, stylistic and regional, of the last 25 years. It traces the recent roots of today's architecture with sensitivity and from the Los Angeles avant-garde and experimentation in Japan, through the stylistic upheavals of Postmodernism and Deconstructivism, to the global development of ecological architecture and the contemporary vernacular. Biographies are also included to reveal the individual history behind each of the protagonist architects featured. Free from the jargon that often characterizes architectural criticism,  Architecture Today  is accessible and essential reading for all those interested in architecture, the visual arts and modern culture.

Genres: Architecture

512 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 1997

About the author

Dr. James McLeod Steele Jr. is a Professor of History and Theory of Architecture at the University of Southern California School of Architecture. His work focuses on the key issues that effect architecture and urban planning.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taking the title and large size from a 1982 Charles Jencks book, this one is just as chock-filled with recent (a few years back) stuff organized in a similar fashion to a standard Jencks production.