When Buildings Speak
Architecture As Language in the Habsburg Empire And Its Aftermath, 1867-1933
Alofsin, Anthony
Hardcover
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BOOK SUMMARY
The canonical inventors of the International Style have long dominated studies of modern European architecture. But in When Buildings Speak, Anthony Alofsin broadens this scope by exploring the rich yet often overlooked architecture of the late Austro-Hun
Submit a book reviewBOOK SYNOPSIS
The canonical inventors of the International Style have long dominated studies of modern European architecture. But in When Buildings Speak, Anthony Alofsin broadens this scope by exploring the rich yet often overlooked architecture of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire and its successor states. He shows that several different styles emerged in this milieu during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moreover, he contends that each of these styles communicates to us in a manner resembling language and its particular means of expression.
Covering a wide range of buildings--from national theaters to crematoria, apartment buildings to warehouses, and sanatoria to postal savings banks--Alofsin proposes a new way of interpreting this language. He calls on viewers to read buildings in two ways: through their formal elements, on the one hand; and through their political, social, and cultural contexts, on the other. By looking through Alofsin's eyes, readers can see how myriad nations sought to express their autonomy by tapping into the limitless possibilities of art and architectural styles. And such architecture can still speak very powerfully to us today about the contradictory issues affecting parts of the former Habsburg Empire.
When Buildings Speak is essential reading not only for students and scholars, but also for any travelers to Central Europe who want to better understand the complex forces at play in the region. Lavishly illustrated with newly commissioned color photographs, it will become the standard introduction to the wide-ranging varieties of modern architecture in the Habsburg Empire and its aftermath.
BOOK EXCERPTS
158 color plates, 52 halftones
AUTHOR BIO
Anthony Alofsin is the Roland Gommel Roessner Centennial Professor of Architecture and professor of art and art history at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lost Years, 19101922, and The Struggle for Modernism: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City Planning at Harvard. He is also editor of Frank Lloyd Wright: Europe and Beyond.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
Issues of Architecture, Language, and Identity
1. The Language of History
2. The Language of Organicism
3. The Language of Rationalism
4. The Language of Myth
5. The Language of Hybridity
Conclusion
Continuities, Discontinuities, and Transformations
Appendix: Place-Names, Educational Institutions, Translation of Secession
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
BOOK REVIEWS
"The book itself as a production is spectacular."—David Dunster, Architectural Review
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MORE BOOK INFO
ISBN: 0226015068
ISBN(13-digit): 9780226015064
Dewey Decimal: 720/.9436/09034
Library of Congress: 2005021958
Book Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr
Language: ENG
No. of Pages: 326
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