Twentieth-Century Architecture

by Dennis Doordan

Highlighting recent scholarship and critical debates, this historical survey of 20th century architecture reviews a variety of design movements provoked by the modern architectural movement, and exposes readers to a broad spectrum of styles—including art deco, organic, state classicism, and traditional architecture—and their relationship to social, cultural, and political life of the period. Organizes material into three parts—Part "Confronting Modernity" surveys four discrete domains of professional design activity in the period 1900-1940 (urban architecture, domestic architecture, the architecture of industry and transportation, and political architecture) engaging readers in one of the most intense debate periods among architects advocating different architectural approaches such as classicism, modernism, organicism, and craft-based design; Part "Modernist Hegemony" reviews developments during the period 1940-1965, when the terms of the debate concerning the character of an appropriate architecture were dramatically revised and narrowed; Part "An Age of Pluralism" covers the years 1966-2000 and the spectrum of design movements characteristic of the last decades of the 20th century (postmodernism, deconstructivism, new classicism "green" architecture), plus discusses the new consciousness of environmental issues, new scientific paradigms, and critical theories of knowledge called into question in the certainties of modernism. Features "critical sets" throughout (groups of three of more examples of the same building type or theme, e.g., three department stores, three movie theaters) that reveal different approaches to a common design problem. For architects or general readers interested in the development and guiding forces behind 20th century building environments.

Genres: Architecture

Paperback

First published September 13, 2001

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The architectural equivalent, to a slightly lesser degree, to the Russell Modern Art book for me.