The Details of Modern Architecture

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Edward R. Ford

The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2003, 1989, English

Nonfiction, Architecture

ISBN: 9780262061216

On 2 book lists

Barry Bergdoll

On Barry Bergdoll’s Book List

A rare, completely fresh take on the history of modern architecture. The way Ford reads buildings and the complex issues of the representation of structural and material qualities in them by either direct or metaphoric ways is inspiring not only for studying the architecture of the late 19th and 20th centuries but also for developing an architectural expression today.

Witold Rybczynski

On Witold Rybczynski’s Book List

Art historians merely describe the appearance of buildings, whereas Ford shows how they were actually built. A combination of philosophy and technological history, this book discusses iconic buildings of early modern architecture, from H. H. Richardson to Frank Lloyd Wright. The comparison of the (sophisticated) building technology of Beaux-Arts architects with the (crude) details of the early modernists is particularly fascinating. A companion volume covers the period 1928–1980.

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