* For the first time ever, Russian avant-garde architect Boris Velikovsky's work is honored in a beautifully designed book* Unpublished technical plans and photos show Velikovsky's importance in modern architecture* An in-depth study of Russian architecture in the 20th centuryWith his residential buildings, office blocks, schools and factories, Boris Velikovsky (1878-1937) made a definitive contribution to Russian avant-garde architecture. His early constructions, such as the Gribov House in Moscow, are still very much bound to Russian Neoclassism, yet since the Revolution of 1917, he began designing in the style of Constructivist architecture. One example is his Gostorg Management Building, distinguished by glass facades, the functional division of space and use of state-of-the-art materials. Furthermore, in the garden city of Druzhba, for instance, Velikovsky intensively engaged with new ideas in town planning. With mostly hitherto unpublished technical plans as well as numerous historical and new color photographs of Boris Velikowsky's most famous projects, this book offers a chance to appreciate Russian avant-garde architecture.

For more information including the introduction, a full list of entries and contributors, a generous selection of sample pages and more, visit the Encyclope dia of 20th Century Architecture website. Focusing on architecture from all regions of the world, this three-volume set profiles the twentieth century's vast chronicle of architectural achievements, both within and well beyond the theoretical confines of modernism. Unlike existing works, this encyclopedia examines the complexities of rapidly changing global conditions that have dispersed modern architectural types, movements, styles, and building practices across traditional geographic and cultural boundaries.

In Making Dystopia, distinguished architectural historian James Stevens Curl tells the story of the advent of architectural Modernism in the aftermath of the First World War, its protagonists, and its astonishing, almost global acceptance after 1945. He argues forcefully that the triumph of architectural Modernism in the second half of the twentieth century led to massive destruction, the creation of alien urban landscapes, and a huge waste of resources. Moreover, the coming of Modernism was not an inevitable, seamless evolution, as many have insisted, but a massive, unparalled disruption that demanded a clean slate and the elimination of all ornament, decoration, and choice. Tracing the effects of the Modernist revolution in architecture to the present, Stevens Curl argues that, with each passing year, so-called 'iconic' architecture by supposed 'star' architects has become more and more bizarre, unsettling, and expensive, ignoring established contexts and proving to be stratospherically remote from the aspirations and needs of humanity. In the elite world of contemporary architecture, form increasingly follows finance, and in a society in which the 'haves' have more and more, and the 'have-nots' are ever more marginalized, he warns that contemporary architecture continues to stack up huge potential problems for the future, as housing costs spiral out of control, resources are squandered on architectural bling, and society fractures. This courageous, passionate, deeply researched, and profoundly argued book should be read by everyone concerned with what is around us. Its combative critique of the entire Modernist architectural project and its apologists will be highly controversial to many. But it contains salutary warnings that we ignore at our peril. And it asks awkward questions to which answers are long overdue.

This book of exquisite duotone photographs looks at the Bori, a West African shamanist cult centered on possession by the spirits of ancestors. Its followers, priests (also known as Bori), and assistants are clairvoyants or faith healers. They perform ecstatic ritual dances to conjure up djinns--spirits--to protect society and its individual members from evil. Faith healers (Boka) employ traditional plants to heal the sick. Caroline Alida's black-and-white portraits of the Bori and the objects used in their ritual practices were taken in dim natural light, imbuing the photos with a contemplative atmosphere.

Distributed by St. Martin's, Auth: Open University, History with translated excerpts of documents.