General & Miscellaneous Architectural History & Criticism, International Style & Modernism - Architecture, U.S.A. - General & Miscellaneous Architecture

New Vernacular Architecture

Name: New Vernacular Architecture
Author: Vicky Richardson
ISBN: 9780823031993

by Vicky Richardson

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Overview

"New Vernacular Architecture considers the synthesis of modernity and tradition in contemporary architecture. Focusing on 37 international examples of buildings of different types completed in the last decade, it examines architecture that reinterprets rather than revives traditional forms, materials and construction techniques. The projects covered range from better known works by renowned architects such as Michael Graves, Renzo Piano and David Chipperfield, to less familiar buildings in Hungary, Nepal, Latvia and elsewhere." The fragmentation of nation states and the greater plurality of political and cultural identities that have occurred over recent years have led to a growing reaction in architecture against "global blanding" - the worldwide homogenization of images and designs. As a result, local context, materials and culture are becoming increasingly important concerns for many architects. Architecture has captured the public imagination as a means of lending form to evolving regional identity and as a way of reflecting difference. Each project features a thoroughly researched and detailed commentary, and is generously illustrated with photographs, sketches and plans.

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Editorials

Library Journal

This book proves that good, old-fashioned modern architecture is alive and well, living in our new millennium and featuring splintered sections, complex elevations, slanted walls, angular roofs, imaginative lighting, indigenous materials, etc. Modern architecture has survived the onslaught of postmodernism in several forms. Cubism is the paramount style here, aided and abetted by Sustainability, 1950s Retro, High Tech, and even a new pragmatism. Primarily a picture book, this volume catalogs and documents the distribution of the modern Cubist industrial architecture throughout the globe in terms of six themes: tradition, technology, landscape, regionalism, civics, and identity. Richardson is a prize-winning writer, the deputy editor of the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the coauthor of In Defense of Domes. Very focused in its purview, this book is aimed at the professional design community. Recommended for architecture libraries only. Peter Kaufman, Boston Architectural Ctr. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.