Shaping the City to Come

Rethinking Modern Architecture and Town Planning in England, c. 1934-51

Deborah Lewittes (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

320 Seiten

2025
Liverpool University Press (Verlag)
978-1-83624-311-3 (ISBN)

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This study reassesses modern architecture and town planning in mid-twentieth-century England, highlighting ideas and debates that were in circulation as modernist ideals gradually took root. The book reveals an architectural culture that was serious, active, and visionary, with impact that extended into the postwar years. Through close studies of specific works and writings, the author acknowledges the importance of the international context of modern architecture as it intersected with the variety of narratives that defined English modernism, such as national identity, the New Empiricism, and the picturesque, taking into account the large community of émigré architects who settled in England with the approach of World War II, as well as a more general dissemination of international style forms and theories from continental Europe. The book places familiar figures such as Berthold Lubetkin and Ernö Goldfinger, as well as projects such as Tecton’s Penguin Pool and the Festival of Britain’s “Live Architecture” Exhibition, in new light, presenting a rich picture of the modern architectural climate in England. The study draws attention to the debates, proposals, and processes that fed into the development of modernist, urban-minded, and forward-looking architectural ideals.

Deborah Lewittes is Associate Professor at City University of New York.

List of Figures

Acknowledgments
Preface: The Man in the White Suit: England and the Dissemination of Modern Architecture

Introduction: Four Stories: Telling the Tale of Modern English Architecture
1. The Visionary and the Concrete: Spirals and Circles
2. London Underground and Overground: From Subcultures and Subterranea to Subtopia

3. Planning London: Wartime Proposals and the Urban Future

4. Living in the Urban Future: Britain “on the cusp” and the Live Architecture Exhibition

Conclusion: Architecture in the Diaspora: An Alternative Framework

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	25.01.2025
Zusatzinfo	20 Illustrations, black and white
Verlagsort	Liverpool
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Technik ► Architektur
ISBN-10	1-83624-311-1 / 1836243111
ISBN-13	978-1-83624-311-3 / 9781836243113
Zustand	Neuware