Modernity and housing.

Umschlag leicht berieben, sonst gutes Exemplar. - Starting from the question of how the design of modern housing can be successful, Peter Rowe explores the social, cultural, and expressive history of housing at two crucial moments: the first large-scale developments along modernist lines in the 1920s, and the widespread reconsideration of modernist principles in the 1970s. Although the inquiry is conducted along historical and theoretical lines, it proposes to uncover practical principles that may guide the design of modern housing, each principle responding to a contemporary architectural paradox posed by modern conditions. Six detailed case studies form the illustrative centerpiece of the book. Modernity and Housing embraces three more or less parallel themes concerning modernity: the rise of technocracy and the attendant tendency of modern space to become universal while the experience of time is confined to the present; the problem of representation for a culture in which subject-centered reason has replaced metaphysical foundations; and social practices that give rise to urban concentrations and the production of mass housing on an unprecedented scale. The case studies cover Sunnyside Gardens, New York; R�merstadt, Frankfurt-am-Main; Kiefhoek, Rotterdam; the Byker Redevelopment, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom; Villa Victoria, Boston; and the Malagueira Quarter, Evora, Portugal. An appendix contains an annotated and statistical summary of all major housing projects described in the text, with notes that include the date, size, place, architect, client, housing type, relative densities, and other items of interest. ISBN 0262181517