From the Reliance Building and Coney Island to the Kimbell Museum and Disney Hall, the United States has been at the forefront of modern architecture. American life has generated many of the quintessential images of modern life, both generic types and particular buildings. Gwendolyn Wright's USA is an engaging account of this evolution from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first. Upending conventional arguments about the origin of...

"At once a reference work and a personal exploration of modernist architecture, this ... collection of Nicolas Grospierres photography covers structures built between 1920 and 1989 in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. These images range from iconic buildings, such as the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis and the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific Research and Development in Kiev, to little-known structures such as...

Against those, who consider architecture to be a wholly optimistic activity, this book shows how the history of modern architecture is inextricably tied to ideas of failure and ruin. By means of an original reading of the earliest origins of modernism, the Architecture of Failure exposes the ways, in which failure has been, suppressed, ignored, and denied, in the way we, design our cities. It examines the 19th century fantasy architecture of the iron...

A deserted Paris house holds the mystery of a brilliant Viennese modernist who worked alongside Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos before vanishing. A leading painter still highly regarded in South Africa, Jean Welz's prior architectural career has been virtually unknown until a string of discoveries unfolded for author and filmmaker Peter Wyeth, allowing him to narrate this amazing true tale of genius. Trained in ultra-sophisticated, but conservative Vienna,...

In many countries, modern houses have evolved into variations of International Style modernism based on local materials and techniques. This title surveys new tropical houses that embrace open floor plans, exterior courtyards, patios and stucco, all within a regionally inflected modern architectural vocabulary.

"Modern architecture includes buildings that embrace clean, simple lines and forms. This book showcases striking modern buildings-from houses and offices to museums and performing arts centers-and the architects who built them! A table of contents, glossary, index, author biography, design activity, and sidebars are included in this title"--