Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture – serie

Through the 1940s and 1950s, PAGON (Progressive Architects Group Oslo Norway) was an alliance of young CIAM-affiliated Norwegian architects known for their innovative joint projects. As a group, PAGON went on to become largely overlooked in the history of modern architecture, even though its individual members – which included Sverre Fehn, Jørn Utzon, Arne Korsmo, and Christian Norberg-Schulz – became defining figures in Scandinavian and international modernism.This book tells the story of PAGON for the first time, offering an impressive account of the group’s projects, buildings, and approach, and demonstrating why PAGON’s projects are ripe for reappraisal in the international history of modern architecture. It shows how PAGON’s architecture constitutes a unique continuity between the Scandinavian functionalism of the late 1930s and the modern movement in theUS, and an important transitional stage before the emergence of the better-known neo-avant-gardegroups within CIAM and Team 10.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book fills a gap in our understanding of mid-century modern architecture and highlights the internationally diverse nature of the modern movement.

The German-American architect, art critic, and urban planner Ludwig Hilberseimer was central to avant-garde art and architecture in the Weimar Republic, an important Bauhaus teacher, and long-standing collaborator of leading modern architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.Despite being internationally-known for his work on Lafayette Park in Detroit, Hilberseimer’s legacy as a whole has been obscured in the history of modern architecture. Whether this is due to the intense shadow cast by Mies, or by his oeuvre being split between the differing languages and contexts of interwar Germany and postwar North America, this book argues that the time is now right for a critical reassessment of Hilberseimer’s work and writings.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this study clarifies and situates Hilberseimer’s ideas both as an architect and writer, and examines their influence on modern and contemporary architecture and urbanism. The first synthetic account of Hilberseimer in English, it provides a contextual account of Hilberseimer’s works which have until now been subject to fragmentary or highly specialized interpretations. By demonstrating the influence of Hilberseimer’s ideas on the architecture of Mies van der Rohe, the book also lends Mies’s work a newfound urban significance.

Kay Fisker (1893-1965) is considered one of the most influential Danish architects of the twentieth century, and yet there has existed until now no in-depth English-language study of his works and writing.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book examines Fisker’s key projects – from his early railway stations and innovative housing projects to the Danish Academy in Rome – and analyses his work as a historian and writer.Fisker’s output is closely associated with the functional tradition, a hybridization of international modernism and regional architectural typologies, and this book shows how his architectural poetics can be understood as an amalgamation of an ideal order with the contingent conditions of landscapes and urban sites. Hybridization is not only a valuable notion for understanding Fisker, the book argues, it can also be applied to an understanding of modernist architecture as a whole, with its various expressions, agendas and tensions both regionally and internationally.

Robin Boyd was Australia’s foremost architectural writer and critic from the late 1940s until his death in 1971. He was also a talented architect, designing houses, apartments, commercial and university buildings, as well as exhibits to represent Australia overseas. This book situates his architecture and writings within the context of post-WWII global architectural discourse and production. A voice from the margins, yet one intimately engaged with contemporary US and European architecture, Boyd’s geographic impartiality also drew architectures from Australia and Japan into global dialogue. He also had a local mission: to build an architecture culture and discourse for his own country. But his acuity in design criticism, widely admired at the time, has been overlooked by subsequent historiography. This book will fill that gap - placing Boyd's work and writing into an international context for the first time. The book is structured into three parts: Dwelling; Discourse and Australia. The first, Dwelling, focuses on Boyd’s development of his theoretical ideas based on the laboratory of the single-family house. The second, Discourse, outlines Boyd’s fight to find a voice for Australian architecture and create a local pedigree for modernism and finally the third, Australia, focuses on Boyd’s commitment to a broader national project and the shaping of Australian identity.

Through the work of the Italian architect, theorist and historian Paolo Portoghesi (1931-2023), this book offers a new perspective on postmodern architecture, showing the agency of other spheres of knowledge – history, politics and media – in the making of postmodern architectural discourse.It explores how Portoghesi’s personal “postmodern project” was based on the triangulation of a renewed interest in historical architectural language, unprecedented use of media and intertwined links between architecture and politics. Organized in a sequence of critical chapters supported by the analysis of Portoghesi’s most significant architectural projects – including Casa Baldi (1959), The Mosque in Rome (1975–95) and his Strada Novissima exhibition (1980) – and publications, the book unfolds around the three main themes of history, politics and media. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the study features previously-unpublished archival material, interviews by the authors and articles from professional and mainstream press to present Portoghesi in his multifaceted role of mediator, politician, historian and designer.

A major voice in the architectural culture of the mid-century, Sibyl Moholy-Nagy was uniquely engaged with modernism and modernity. As one of the very few female architectural critics of the time, she was an early voice articulating doubts about the path modernist architecture was taking, demystifying the myths of the masters, Mies, Le Corbusier and Gropius, and questioning their heroic, masculinist approach. Yet her writings and work are understudied, and have largely vanished from the canon of scholarly references on modernism.This book analyzes the significance of the life and work of Moholy-Nagy and explores the paradoxical aspects of the relationship between modernism and feminism. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked figures in modernism, it is both an examination of her work and legacy, and also a study on the roles of gender and of the changing nature of modernism in its trajectory from Europe to America.Drawing on personal papers, diaries, letters and lecture notes, as well as personal interviews with relatives, colleagues and students, this study is a key resource for scholars who would like to include the contributions of women in to their discussions of architecture and modernism.

Architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers (1909-1969) was a towering figure in 20th-century Italian architecture, with a significant impact at the international level. Through the work of his collaborative firm (Banfi Belgiojoso Peressutti Rogers, or BBPR), the editorship of publications such as Domus and Casabella, and his teaching at the Politecnico in Milan, Rogers ensured a lasting influence on the field as a practitioner, theorist and educator. However his contributions have been largely neglected by scholarship outside of Italy.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book re-assesses Ernesto Nathan Rogers' cultural legacy. It is the first comprehensive, critical work on Rogers in English, and emphasizes Rogers' vision for the role of the architect as a public intellectual, as well as his commitment to pursue a renewed path of professional and cultural research within the “Modern Project.” The book also discusses Roger's willingness to challenge academic classicized monumentality as well as modernist stereotypes, to emerge as a leader of Italian design in the aftermath of World War II; his interest in all scales of design and planning, with a cross-disciplinary mentality; tradition in modernity; and criticality as a mode of practice, to bring a detailed account of the work and thought of Ernesto Nathan Rogers to an English-speaking audience for the first time.With a foreword by Kenneth Frampton.

The Colombian architectural firm ESUS (Esguerra, Saenz, Urdaneta y Samper) played a key role in the development of modern architecture in Colombia during the mid-20th century. Notable for their technical innovation, elaborate language and careful execution, ESUS’ buildings also carry broader significance in terms of our understanding of how the international ideals of architectural modernism were adapted to local Latin American contexts. Yet until now there has existed no English-language study of their architecture and legacy. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book examines ESUS’ work from an array of perspectives including the technological, formal, material, urban, and global, showing in particular how their high-rise concrete buildings contribute to new understandings of the history of concrete architecture. Including previously unpublished archival documents, images, and drawings, this is an important new account in the expanding scholarly history of modernism in Latin America.

Kay Fisker (1893-1965) is considered one of the most influential Danish architects of the twentieth century, and yet there has existed until now no in-depth English-language study of his works and writing.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book examines Fisker’s key projects – from his early railway stations and innovative housing projects to the Danish Academy in Rome – and analyses his work as a historian and writer.Fisker’s output is closely associated with the functional tradition, a hybridization of international modernism and regional architectural typologies, and this book shows how his architectural poetics can be understood as an amalgamation of an ideal order with the contingent conditions of landscapes and urban sites. Hybridization is not only a valuable notion for understanding Fisker, the book argues, it can also be applied to an understanding of modernist architecture as a whole, with its various expressions, agendas and tensions both regionally and internationally.

Fleeing Europe in 1939 for the Australian state of Queensland, the architect Karl Langer (1903-1969) found himself positioned at the very edge of both European and Australian modernism.Confronted by tropical heat and glare, the economics of affordable housing, fiercely proud regional architectural practices, and a suspicion of the foreign, Langer moulded the European language of international modernism to the unique climatic and social conditions of tropical Australia.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book is both an examination of Langer’s work and international legacy, and also a case study in tropical modernism and the trans-global dissemination of design ideas – revealing how Langer sought to reconcile his training in international modernism with a fascination for the formal and visual languages of a regional culture, context, and climate.

This book addresses the work of architect John Dalton (1927-2007), an important voice in mid-century modernism in Australia whose work, despite his being exhibited and published internationally and also winning several awards for his designs, is woefully little known.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the book draws on previously unpublished archival documents, including Dalton’s drawings and paintings, transcripts of lectures, letters and articles, plans and photographic images of built works, to characterize the architect not only as a very talented designer, but also as a pioneer of environmentalist thinking in Australia.The book reveals how Dalton’s architectural preoccupations parallel a transition in mid-century modern architecture globally from functional efficiency and material rationalism, to a concern with being in dialogue with the environment, confirming a wider ‘environmental turn’ that involved the integration of environmental with cultural considerations through relational thinking, and which preceded and transcends the discipline’s fascination with theoretical paradigms such as Critical Regionalism. John Dalton: Subtropical Modernism and the Turn to Environment in Australian Architecture is thus not only an important contribution to the existing scholarship on 20th century modernism, but also to the current renewed interest in environmental design across the globe.

Through the 1940s and 1950s, PAGON (Progressive Architects Group Oslo Norway) was an alliance of young CIAM-affiliated Norwegian architects known for their innovative joint projects. As a group, PAGON went on to become largely overlooked in the history of modern architecture, even though its individual members – which included Sverre Fehn, Jørn Utzon, Arne Korsmo, and Christian Norberg-Schulz – became defining figures in Scandinavian and international modernism.This book tells the story of PAGON for the first time, offering an impressive account of the group’s projects, buildings, and approach, and demonstrating why PAGON’s projects are ripe for reappraisal in the international history of modern architecture. It shows how PAGON’s architecture constitutes a unique continuity between the Scandinavian functionalism of the late 1930s and the modern movement in the US, and an important transitional stage before the emergence of the better-known neo-avant-garde groups within CIAM and Team 10.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book fills a gap in our understanding of mid-century modern architecture and highlights the internationally diverse nature of the modern movement.

This book brings to light the work and influence of the German-American architect, art critic, and urban planner Ludwig Hilberseimer – a central figure of the Weimar Republic avant-garde, an important Bauhaus teacher, and long-standing collaborator of leading modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.Despite being internationally-known for his work on Lafayette Park in Detroit, Hilberseimer’s legacy as a whole has been obscured in the history of modern architecture. Whether this is due to the intense shadow cast by Mies, or by his oeuvre being split between the differing languages and contexts of interwar Germany and post-war North America, this book argues that the time is now right for a critical reassessment of Hilberseimer’s work and writings.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which explores the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this study clarifies and situates Hilberseimer’s ideas both as an architect and writer, and examines their influence on modern and contemporary architecture and urbanism. The first account of Hilberseimer in English, it provides a contextual account of Hilberseimer’s works which have until now been subject to fragmentary or highly specialized interpretations. By demonstrating the influence of Hilberseimer’s ideas on the architecture of Mies van der Rohe, the book also lends Mies’s work a newfound urban significance.

Through the work of the Italian architect, theorist and historian Paolo Portoghesi (1931-2023), this book offers a new perspective on postmodern architecture, showing the agency of other spheres of knowledge – history, politics and media – in the making of postmodern architectural discourse.It explores how Portoghesi’s personal “postmodern project” was based on the triangulation of a renewed interest in historical architectural language, unprecedented use of media and intertwined links between architecture and politics. Organized in a sequence of critical chapters supported by the analysis of Portoghesi’s most significant architectural projects – including Casa Baldi (1959), The Mosque in Rome (1975–95) and his Strada Novissima exhibition (1980) – and publications, the book unfolds around the three main themes of history, politics and media. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the study features previously-unpublished archival material, interviews by the authors and articles from professional and mainstream press to present Portoghesi in his multifaceted role of mediator, politician, historian and designer.

Mohsen Foroughi (1907-1983) was one of the most important and influential Iranian architects of the modern era. Standing at the intersection between modernism, tradition, and the Beaux-Arts, Foroughi’s work traces the major cultural developments of twentieth-century Iran and the Middle East – from the development of a new Iranian nationalism in the 1930s, to the emergence of a high modernist aesthetic of the mid-twentieth century, and finally to a more locally-expressive and formalist approach in the 1960s and 70s. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book reveals Foroughi’s vital roles as a designer, educator, and politician in Iran’s program of modernisation, and explores a selection of case-study buildings including Foroughi’s branches for the Iranian National Bank, the Sa’di Mausoleum, his Senate House of Iran, and the Maison de l’Iran in Paris.This is the first English-language study of the career of an Iranian modernist architect, offering new and unique insights into the expansion of twentieth-century modern architecture into non-Euro-American global contexts.