European Architecture 1750-1890

by Barry Bergdoll

This comprehensive examination of eighteenth and nineteenth-century architecture explores its extreme diversity within the context of tremendous social, economic and political upheaval. Never before had the functional requirements and expressive capacities of architecture been tested so thoroughly and with such diversity of invention. Bergdoll traces this experimentation in a broad range of contexts, focusing in particular on the relation of architectural design to new theories of history, new categories of scientific inquiry, and the broadening audience for architecture in this period of transformation. Unlike traditional surveys with long lists of buildings and architects, the themes are elucidated by in-depth coverage of key buildings which in turn are situated in both their local and European context.

Genres: Architecture, History, Art, Nonfiction, Reference, Art History, School

336 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2000

About the author

Barry Bergdoll is professor of architectural history in the department of art history and archaeology at Columbia University and the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book for those who love history and architecture, and even for those who don’t, but love the world of ideas. It has wonderful photographs and illustrations, and gives the reader a sense of the great excitement of the period. Confluence of Enlightenment thinking, interest in science and “laws of nature”, the belief that society and people’s lives could be improved by the application of new technologies and scientific methods and new ideas about human perception and understanding. Lots of experimentation, a fertile time, when philosophy, art, architecture, came together with the emergence of the early industrial revolution. Suddenly there was a need for all kinds of new buildings, factories, churches, retail establishments and large market places, all manner of civic buildings, parks, museums, libraries, train stations, public mints, salt works, and housing to meet the needs of the emerging middle class. Although most of the action was primarily lead by France, and Paris in particular [with great competitions and public debate] but Britain and even Germany participated.

Interesting things I learned – about where all the Neo-Classical buildings we still see today in the great capitals of Europe and eve on the East Coast of the United States came from – the discovery of the ruins of Pompeii and Herculeneum in the mid 1750’s, an interest in Egyptian art, culture and design, the discussion of whether architecture should be based on classic lines universal to all cultures, or promote national and cultural differences. Where Gothic came from – the urge to celebrate medieval times and styles as descriptive of national history and then, the notion that the two could be blended in all kinds of ways successfully. For a time there was a prevailing idea that there could be a “taxonomy of architectural styles to produce a veritable palette of historical building idioms usable towards new ends: Egyptian for prisons, Gothic for churches, or Italian Renaissance for banks and exchanges.” “These choices were meant to activate prevailing cultural associations: the pharaohs with death and eternity, the Middle Ages with Christianity, or the Medici with the rise of banking and modern commerce. By the early 19th century, techonology kicked in with the application of iron in construction and ornamentation, culminating, with the opening of London’s Crystal Palace in 1851.

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice historical perspective on architectural evolution

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great art geek lit.