Architecture in Uniform: Designing and Building for the Second World War

by Jean-Louis Cohen

This fascinating book offers a new perspective on the architectural history of the Second World War, which in previous accounts has most often been viewed as a hiatus between peaceful periods of production. Jean-Louis Cohen contends instead that during the years between the bombings of Guernica in 1937 and of Hiroshima in 1945, specific advances were fundamental to the process of modernization and led to the definitive supremacy of modernism in architecture. Centering the discussion on ten main themes, the author investigates various aspects of architecture's mobilization in the war years, as well as the trajectories of individual architects. He analyzes architectural developments worldwide and takes into account each of the major participants in the war, including the United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Soviet Union. The book not only focuses on plans, buildings, and technological inventions but also examines the many types of visual representation used for war purposes, enhanced by a rich array of more than 300 illustrations.

Distributed for Editions Hazan, Paris

Exhibition Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal
(04/12/11-09/05/11)

Genres: Architecture, History, Art

448 pages, Hardcover

First published June 14, 2011

About the author

Jean-Louis Cohen (20 July 1949 – 7 August 2023) was a French architect and architectural historian specializing in modern architecture and city planning.

Reviews

[Henri Tournyol du Clos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This quite fascinating book, the companion to a travelling exhibition, makes an important point which is easily forgotten nowadays: by heavily exposing tens of millions of people to functional, industrial objects, WWII changed the aesthetics of the western world. Before it, most people's sense of beauty was rooted in the ornate tradition of past centuries and cold, no-frills shapes were nearly the sole property of the avant-garde. After 1945, these quickly became the new aesthetic normal, making way for modernity.