Teaching by example.MODERN: THE MODERN MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN By Alan Powers. London: Merrell. 2005. [pounds sterling]35 A picture in Alan Powers' Modern: the Modern Movement in Britain captivates the ambiguities of the 1930s. Flanking the great Corbu are haughty haugh·ty adj. haugh·ti·er, haugh·ti·est Scornfully and condescendingly proud. See Synonyms at proud. [From Middle English haut, from Old French haut, halt Serge Chermayeff Serge Ivan Chermayeff (October 8 1900 – May 8 1996) was a Chechen born, British architect, writer, and co-founder of several architectural societies, including the American Society of Planners and Architects. , raffish raff·ish adj. 1. Cheaply or showily vulgar in appearance or nature; tawdry. 2. Characterized by a carefree or fun-loving unconventionality; rakish. Wells Coates Wells Wintemute Coates (December 17, 1895 – June 17, 1958) was an architect, designer and writer. He was, for most of his life, an ex-patriate Canadian architect who is best known for his work in England. His most notable work is the Isokon building in Hampstead, London. , jeune premier Jim Richards Jim Richards may refer to:
In Eastern Christian churches of Byzantine tradition, a solid screen of stone, wood, or metal separating the sanctuary from the nave. It has a royal door in the center and two smaller doors on either side. . We could unpick the implied theology of the Modern Movement in Britain, as Powers struggles manfully man·ful adj. Having or showing the bravery and resoluteness considered characteristic of a man. See Synonyms at male. man  ful·ly adv. to do, or we could just see a bunch of stiff-shirted poseurs, not quite sure whether they gain more glamour from their proximity to Le Corbusier or association with social action suggested by the diagram behind. On reflection we should not be surprised that the decade's most famous structure is a pool for parading penguins. That ambiguity between glamour and social action is one of Modernism's central dilemmas, in some ways as strong now as it was in the 1930s. Powers' raising of it is, I fear, inadvertent as the thrust of his text is descriptive. His knowledge of the field is wide and it has the virtue of recognising what were once considered backwaters, such as Oliver Hill and Goodhart-Rendel alongside the acknowledged masters, but it is the selection of examples that creates the interest and opportunities for personal exegesis exegesis Scholarly interpretation of religious texts, using linguistic, historical, and other methods. In Judaism and Christianity, it has been used extensively in the study of the Bible. Textual criticism tries to establish the accuracy of biblical texts. , as they are presented from a descriptive rather than analytical viewpoint. This format of text-led introduction followed by a longer run of illustrated examples, follows the format of one of the 1930s' finest books in architecture, F. R. S. Yorke's The Modern House. So houses by Elisabeth Benjamin, Dora Cosens and (Ms) Justin Blanco White take their bow alongside Highpoint and Isokon and a fine house by cinema specialist Harry Weedon. It also resurrects examples by almost forgotten emigres like Rudolf Frankel and Fritz Ruhemann, and factories for continental companies like Roche by the Swiss master Rudolf Salvisberg, and Bata by the Czech Vladimir Karfik. Like Yorke, Powers presents his selection attractively though far from comprehensively, and just as the Modern House showed that Modernism went further than Mies, Corb and Gropius, he adds real evidence to the realisation that the Pcvsnerite and Richardsian screens concealed a richer, deeper and broader Modernist culture in Britain during the 1930s. But beyond presenting that evidence attractively though far from comprehensively, this book only offers a starting point for urgently needed further analysis. Book reviews from The Architectural Review can now be seen on our website at www.arplus.com and the books can be ordered online, many at special discount. |
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