Thinking Through Twentieth-Century Architecture

Nicholas Ray, currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Liverpool, practised and taught at Cambridge for more than 40 years, where he is an Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College. Previous publications include monographs on Alvar Aalto and Rafael Moneo and co-authored books and articles with Christian Illies, a German philosopher.

Introduction 1. A philosophical framework 2. Origins of Modernism - the European picture 3. Fin de siecle Vienna as a paradigm of Modernism 4. The Modernist Canon: the Bauhaus, Le Corbusier and CIAM 5. Positive Scepticism: Alvar Aalto as an alternative modernist 6. Ideals and their representation: Louis Kahn 7. Humanizing Modernism: Team Ten and the Dutch 8. Postmodernism: Irony and Inclusiveness 9. The typological critique 10. Conflicting existential ideals 11. Conclusions - 21st century hindsight Acknowledgements Select bibliography Index