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Design Museum Fifty
Design Museum: Fifty Modern Buildings That Changed the World
One of two new titles in the Design Museum Fifty series published in conjunction with London's prestigious Design Museum.
The history of modern architecture is as diverse as it is beautiful, varying wildly from region to region and era to era. Here Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum, explores 50 of the most significant and striking buildings in the world, from the modernist aesthetic of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye to the eye-catching flair of Beijing's CCTV Headquarters.
Contents
Villa Savoye, Poissy
Rockefeller Center, New York
Eames House, Los Angeles
Montreal Biosphere, Montreal
Pompidou Centre, Paris
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
Beijing Olympic Stadium, Beijing
Selfridges, Birmingham
...and many more.
Deyan Sudjic (Author)
Deyan Sudjic is a writer, broadcaster and director of the Design Museum. Before his post at the Design Museum, he was the design and architecture critic for The Observer, the Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Kingston University and co-chair of the Urban Age Advisory Board. He is a leading figure in the field of architectural theory.
The Design Museum (Author)
The Design Museum's mission is to celebrate, entertain and inform. It is the world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form from furniture to fashion, and architecture to graphics. It is working to place design at the center of contemporary culture and demonstrates both the richness of the creativity to be found in all forms of design, and its importance.
The history of modern architecture is as diverse as it is beautiful, varying wildly from region to region and era to era. Here Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum, explores 50 of the most significant and striking buildings in the world, from the modernist aesthetic of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye to the eye-catching flair of Beijing's CCTV Headquarters.
Contents
Villa Savoye, Poissy
Rockefeller Center, New York
Eames House, Los Angeles
Montreal Biosphere, Montreal
Pompidou Centre, Paris
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
Beijing Olympic Stadium, Beijing
Selfridges, Birmingham
...and many more.
Deyan Sudjic (Author)
Deyan Sudjic is a writer, broadcaster and director of the Design Museum. Before his post at the Design Museum, he was the design and architecture critic for The Observer, the Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Kingston University and co-chair of the Urban Age Advisory Board. He is a leading figure in the field of architectural theory.
The Design Museum (Author)
The Design Museum's mission is to celebrate, entertain and inform. It is the world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form from furniture to fashion, and architecture to graphics. It is working to place design at the center of contemporary culture and demonstrates both the richness of the creativity to be found in all forms of design, and its importance.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published July 7, 2015
About the author
Design Museum
43 books14 followersDesign Museum is a museum founded in 1989, located by the River Thames near Tower Bridge in central London, England. The museum covers product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design. In 2007 the museum was listed by The Times newspaper as number two in their top five museums of the year.
Deyan Sudjic is the current Director of the museum. He succeeded Alice Rawsthorn in 2006. Unlike most large London museums, the entrance is not free, as it is not subsidised by the UK Arts Council. For this reason it operates as a registered charity, and all funds generated by ticket sales aid the museum in putting new exhibitions together. The museum attracts 200,000 visitors annually.
Source: Wikipedia.
Deyan Sudjic is the current Director of the museum. He succeeded Alice Rawsthorn in 2006. Unlike most large London museums, the entrance is not free, as it is not subsidised by the UK Arts Council. For this reason it operates as a registered charity, and all funds generated by ticket sales aid the museum in putting new exhibitions together. The museum attracts 200,000 visitors annually.
Source: Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 7, 2024
Architecture is very subjective. That said, I found a lot of these to be ugly, modernist buildings. The UN headquarters is captured with a black-and-white monochrome photo that makes it look heavenly, Wagnerian, even; it’s safe to say the HQ changed the world, not just the building. It’s ironic a lot of these pages are scrubbed clean of fascism and yet Albert Speer lingers like a very nasty curse-word over the entire proceedings, his brutality a sign of a perhaps inevitable nightmare future.
July 2, 2017
Title is misleading. "Fifty modern buildings?" Yes. "Changed the world?" Definitely no. Most of the buildings shown were decidedly lacklustre and mindnumbingly boring. (Not to mention ugly.) And some of the pictures showed only part of the structure, or its interior. A good book to get a sense of what constitutes a "modern" building in terms of design, but that's about it.
December 27, 2017
Very enjoyable, though I can't comment on the 50 buildings chosen. It's short - just a two page spread for each item. The text is appreciably opinionated: a good thing for such limited space. But the images (often just one for a whole building) have a hard time conveying more than a glimpse. I guess that means we readers should want to go and see these in situ.
September 6, 2025
An interesting collection of 5o buildings. I am kind of surprised by some of the selections (and especially omissions) but it is an interesting album to flip through. I now want to see some of those buildings in real life (and some I have seen already).
November 1, 2016
The book presents fifty buildings that changed the (architectural) world.
Internationally-aclaimed buildings sure will catch readers' attention, like blue-alien shaped building of Kunsthaus Graz, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Beijing's CCTV Headquarters and Bird's Nest.
But some other smaller scale buildings with local taste may also fascinate the reader, like Austrian Postal Savings Bank, Lingotto Fiat Factory with test track on its rooftop, and Chapel of Notre Dame Du Haut.
Presented in chronological order, the reader may also find a pattern of architects' taste then and now.
Internationally-aclaimed buildings sure will catch readers' attention, like blue-alien shaped building of Kunsthaus Graz, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Beijing's CCTV Headquarters and Bird's Nest.
But some other smaller scale buildings with local taste may also fascinate the reader, like Austrian Postal Savings Bank, Lingotto Fiat Factory with test track on its rooftop, and Chapel of Notre Dame Du Haut.
Presented in chronological order, the reader may also find a pattern of architects' taste then and now.
March 29, 2016
The buildings included are fascinating! Hope to visit them one by one :-)
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews