Louis I. Kahn

Until his death at age 104, Oscar Niemeyer (1907?2012) was something of an unstoppable architectural force. Over seven decades of work, he designed approximately 600 buildings, transforming skylines from Bab-Ezzouar, Algeria, to his homeland masterpiece Brasília. Niemeyer?s work took the reduced forms of modernism and infused them with free-flowing grace. In place of pared-down starkness, his structures rippled with sinuous and seductive lines. In buildings such as the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum, Edifício Copan, or the Metropolitan Cathedral in Brasília, he brought curvaceousness to the concrete jungle. In the futuristic federal capital of Brasília, he designed almost all public buildings, and thus became integral to the global image of Brazil. With rich illustrations documenting...

Walter Gropius, visionary of the Bauhaus and beyond Walter Gropius (1883?1969) set out to build for the future. As the founding director of the Bauhaus, the Berlin-born architect had an inestimable influence on our aesthetic environment, championing a bold new hybrid of light, geometry, and industrial design, as dazzling today as it was a century ago. In this essential architect introduction, we survey Gropius? evolution and influence with 20 of his most significant projects, from the Bauhaus Building in Dessau, Germany, to the Chicago Tribune Tower and Harvard University Graduate Center, completed after Gropius?s exodus to the United States in 1937. We explore his role both as an architectural practitioner, and as a writer and educator, not only as a Bauhaus pioneer, but also, along with...

The man with a modern mission Born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, Le Corbusier (1887?1965) is widely acclaimed as the most influential architect of the 20th century. From private villas to mass social housing projects, his radical ideas, designs, and writings presented a whole-scale reinvention not only of individual structures, but of entire concepts of modern living. Le Corbusier?s work made distinct developments over the years, from early vernacular houses in Switzerland through dazzling white, purist villas to dynamic syntheses of art and architecture such as the chapel at Ronchamp and the civic buildings in Chandigarh, India. A hallmark throughout was his ability to combine functionalist aspirations with a strong sense of expressionism, as well as a broader and empathetic understanding o...

Od Uralu po koło podbiegunowe, album odkrywa modernistyczne osiedla wzniesione na obrzeżach metropolii dalekiej północy, industrialne monomiasta, kosmiczne bryły radzieckich cyrków, betonowe gmachy teatrów oraz wszechobecne bloki z wielkiej płyty, wzniesione na wiecznej zmarzlinie Syberii. Concrete Siberia od Zupagrafika podzielona jest na sześć rozdziałów, ilustrowanych ponad 100. zdjęciami rosyjskiego fotografa, Alexandra Veryovkina, przedstawiającymi trudne piękno i rozmach powojennej modernistycznej architektury Nowosybirska, Omska, Krasnojarska, Norylska, Irkucka i Jakucka, oraz codzienne życie ich mieszkańców. Książka zawiera prolog autorstwa krytyka architektury, Konstantina Budarina, mapy oraz krótkie eseje opisujące historie dzielnic mieszkaniowych powyższyc...

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Arcyciekawy, bogato ilustrowany portret jednego z najważniejszych architektów XX wieku, Waltera Gropiusa. Autorka, uznawana w Wielkiej Brytanii za mistrzynię biografii, śledzi nie tylko twórczość i koncepcje Gropiusa, ale też przybliża jego historię osobistą, nie mniej intrygującą od twórczości. Przy okazji otrzymujemy całą panoramę życia kulturalnego i społecznego Niemiec od końca XIX do lat sześćdziesiątych XX wieku, na tle której pojawiają się najwybitniejsze postacie sztuki i architektury tamtych czasów.

Współczesne spojrzenie na modernizm z punktu widzenia architektury krajobrazu, wzbogacone o ciekawy materiał ilustracyjny. Autorki opisują ten nurt na tle poglądów dzisiejszych jego odbiorców: teoretyków, twórców i studentów związanych z kształtowaniem przestrzeni, a także „konsumentów” modernistycznych miast, dzielnic i osiedli, wskazując na relatywną niejednoznaczność jego fenomenu. Podejmują też próbę odpowiedzi na pytanie o przyszłość modernizmu. Celem badań było wskazanie w kontekście współczesnego odbioru modernizmu tych jego idei, form i treści, które mogą być przydatne w optymalnym kształtowaniu przestrzeni między budynkami. W publikacji wykorzystano kompilację metod badawczych z dziedziny architektury krajobrazu, urbanistyki, psychologii �...

Lyrical forms from Finland Alvar Aalto (1898?1976) made a unique modernist mark. Influenced by both the landscape and the political independence of his native Finland, he designed warm, curving, compassionate buildings, wholly set apart from the slick, mechanistic, geometric designs that characterized much contemporary European practice. Whether a church, a villa, a sauna, or a public library, Aalto?s organic structures tended to replace plaster and steel with brick and wood, often incorporating undulating, wave-like forms, which would also appear in his chair, glassware, and lamp designs. An adherent to detail, Aalto insisted upon the humanity of his work stating: ?Modern architecture does not mean using immature new materials; the main thing is to work with materials towards a more human...

One of the greatest pioneers in the history of architecture Acclaimed as the ?father of skyscrapers,? the quintessentially American icon Frank Lloyd Wright (1867?1959) was an architect of aspiration. He believed in giving cultivated American life its fitting architectural equivalent and applied his idealism to structures across the continent, from suburban homes to churches, offices, skyscrapers, and the celebrated Guggenheim Museum. Wright?s work is distinguished by its harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture, and which found its paradigm at Fallingwater, a house in rural Pennsylvania, cited by the American Institute of Architects as ?the best all-time work of American architecture.? Wright also made a particular mark with his use of industri...

Wright on The star pieces of Americas greatest architect A building by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is at once unmistakably individual, and evocative of an entire era. Notable for their exceptional understanding of an organic environment, as well as for their use of steel and glass to revolutionize the interface of indoor and outdoor, Wright s designs helped announce the age of modernity, as much as they secured his own name in the annals of architectural genius. This meticulous compilation from TASCHEN s previous three-volume monograph assembles the most important works from Wright s extensive, paradigm-shifting oeuvre into one authoritative and accessibly priced overview of America`s most famous architect. Based on unlimited access to the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives in Taliesin, Arizon...