Once again, new interpretations are presented of some of the most famous architecture of the period. Work by lesser-known architects, whose influence and role have been overlooked by conventional histories of the subject, is discussed. The case study structure allows each example to be discussed and used as a springboard to explore different theoretical approaches. Filled with beautiful photographs, plans and architect's drawings, this is a clear and accessible discussion on a period of architecture that engages many questions still under debate in architecture today.

In this text, Peter Blundell Jones and Eamonn Canniffe detail a new approach to the understanding of modern architecture by using case studies to explore the themes and diversity of architecture from the 1945 to 1990.

The history of post Second World War reconstruction has recently become an important field of research around the world; Alternative Visions of Post-War Reconstruction is a provocative work that questions the orthodoxies of twentieth century design history. This book provides a key critical statement on mid-twentieth century urban design and city planning, focused principally upon the period between the start of the Second World War to the mid-sixties. The various figures and currents covered here represent a largely overlooked field within the history of 20th century urbanism. In this period while certain modernist practices assumed an institutional role for post-war reconstruction and flourished into the mainstream, such practices also faced opposition and criticism leading to the production of alternative visions and strategies. Spanning from a historically-informed modernism to the increasing presence of urban conservation the contributors examine these alternative approaches to the city and its architecture.

Architecture and Ritual explores how the varied rituals of everyday life are framed and defined in space by the buildings which we inhabit. It penetrates beyond traditional assumptions about architectural style, aesthetics and utility to deal with something more implicit: how buildings shape and reflect our experience in ways of which we remain unconscious. Whether designed to house a grand ceremony or provide shelter for a daily meal, all buildings coordinate and consolidate social relations by giving orientation and focus to the spatial practices of those who use them. Peter Blundell Jones investigates these connections between the social and the spatial, providing critical insights into the capacity for architecture to structure human ritual, from the grand and formal to the mundane. This is achieved through deep readings of individual pieces of architecture, each with a detailed description of its particular social setting and use. The case studies are drawn from throughout architectural history and from around the globe, each enabling a distinct theoretical theme to emerge, and showing how social conventions vary with time and place, as well as what they have in common. Case studies range from the Nuremberg Rally to the Centre Pompidou, and from the Palace of Westminster to Dogon dwellings in Africa and a Modernist hospital. In considering how all architecture has to mesh with the habits, beliefs, rituals and expectations of the society that created it, the book presents deep implications for our understanding of architectural history and theory. It also highlights the importance for architects of understanding how buildings frame social space before they prescribe new architectural designs of their own. The book ends with a recent example of user participation, showing how contemporary user interest and commitment to a building can be as strong as ever.

Photography and architecture have a uniquely powerful resonance - architectural form provides the camera with the subject for some of its most compelling imagery, while photography profoundly influences how architecture is represented, imagined and produced. Camera Constructs is the first book to reflect critically on the varied interactions of the different practices by which photographers, artists, architects, theorists and historians engage with the relationship of the camera to architecture, the city and the evolution of Modernism. The title thus on the one hand opposes the medium of photography and the materiality of construction - but on the other can be read as saying that the camera invariably constructs what it depicts: the photograph is not a simple representation of an external reality, but constructs its own meanings and reconstructs its subjects. Twenty-three essays by a wide range of historians and theorists are grouped under the themes of ’Modernism and the Published Photograph’, ’Architecture and the City Re-imagined’, ’Interpretative Constructs’ and ’Photography in Design Practices.’ They are preceded by an Introduction that comprehensively outlines the subject and elaborates on the diverse historical and theoretical contexts of the authors’ approaches. Camera Constructs provides a rich and highly original analysis of the relationship of photography to built form from the early modern period to the present day.

A revealing new look at modernist architecture, emphasizing its diversity, complexity, and broad inventiveness Usually associated with Mies and Le Corbusier, the Modern Movement was instrumental in advancing new technologies of construction in architecture, including the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete. Renowned historian Kenneth Frampton offers a bold look at this crucial period, focusing on architects less commonly associated with the movement in order to reveal the breadth and complexity of architectural modernism. The Other Modern Movement profiles nineteen architects, each of whom consciously contributed to the evolution of a new architectural typology through a key work realized between 1922 and 1962. Frampton's account offers new insights into iconic buildings like Eileen Gray's E-1027 House in France and Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, California, as well as lesser-known works such as Antonin Raymond's Tokyo Golf Club and Alejandro de la Sota's Maravillas School Gymnasium in Madrid. Foregrounding the ways that these diverse projects employed progressive models, advanced new methods in construction techniques, and displayed a new sociocultural awareness, Frampton shines a light on the rich legacy of the Modern Movement and the enduring potential of the unfinished modernist project.

The conditions in which present-day architecture is produced are partly local and singular and partly global and universal. Understanding contemporary architecture means understanding all of these aspects. What are the pivotal themes? Gert Wingårdh and Rasmus Wærn, Sweden’s most active architect and its best-known architecture critic, asked themselves this question and made a selection of approximately fifty terms and concepts, including Branding, Collaborators, Corporate, Desire, Future, Everyday, Ornament, and Wheelchair. The result is a very special dictionary with humorous illustrations and original articles by interesting protagonists such as Denise Scott Brown, Kenneth Frampton, Massimiliano Fuksas, Hans Ibelings, Peter Blundell Jones, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Juhani Pallasmaa, Joseph Rykwert, Jaime Salazar, Axel Sowa, and Wilfried Wang. A special highlight is the text by Nobel laureate Ohran Pamuk. Die Voraussetzungen, unter welchen heutige Architektur entsteht, sind teils lokal und einmalig bedingt, teils sind sie von globaler und allgemeingültiger Natur. Zeitgenössische Architektur verstehen heisst, all diese Aspekte verstehen. Welches sind dabei die entscheidenden Themen? Gert Wingårdh und Rasmus Wærn, Schwedens aktivster Architekt beziehungsweise bekanntester Architekturkritiker, haben sich diese Frage gestellt und eine kritische Auswahl von rund 50 Begriffen getroffen, etwa Branding, Collaborators, Corporate, Desire, Future, Everyday, Ornament, Wheelchair. Dadurch ist ein ganz spezielles, witzig illustriertes Begriffs-Wörterbuch entstanden, mit Originalbeiträgen von so interessanten Protagonisten wie etwa Denise Scott Brown, Massimiliano Fuksas, Hans Ibelings, Peter Blundell Jones, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Juhani Pallasmaa, Joseph Rykwert, Jaime Salazar, Axel Sowa, Wilfried Wang; ein besonderes Highlight ist der Text von Nobelpreisträger Orhan Pamuk.