New build
The view 70 storeys up from the top of the Shard, London – currently Europe’s highest completed structure – shows a seemingly infinite panorama of building: centuries of construction – from St Paul’s to the now short-looking Gherkin – surrounded by miles and miles of Victorian terraces.
As an architectural survey, it’s impressive rather than beautiful. To see the beauty in architecture you need a close- up, which is where something like Taschen’s massive book on Architecture In The 20th Century comes into its own; it’s almost as breathtaking as the Shard’s viewing platform itself.
The inner courtyard of the IG Farben Company building in Germany, by Peter Behrens, 1920-1924. Right: The Seagram Building, New York, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with Philip Johnson, 1954-1958
Twentieth-century architecture has its roots in the Industrial Age – when iron and glass first began to be used. By 1925, concrete was just getting going and, by the 1940s, houses were ‘machines for living in’. It took the 1970s to invent the flying roof and, before you knew it, you were in the post-modern cities of the Noughties.
Spain’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, by Frank O Gehry, 1991-1997. Inset: Entrance hall to Tassel Residence in Brussels by Victor Horta, 1892-1893
This progression is briefly described here, but it’s the pictures you’ll want to gaze at and mull over. Take the chapter on concrete containers, for instance. This includes the extraordinary Unité d’Habi- tation by Le Corbusier in Marseille, built between 1947-1952, which marries roof- top ventilation shafts with a running track and a children’s play area.
The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, 1971-1977: the externalised skeleton of the supporting construction dominates the building
The post-modern city shows views of the Chicago skyline as well as the stunning Atlantis Apartments block in Miami (1979-1982) with its stinging blue geometric façade into which a ‘punched- out’ square houses a full-grown palm tree. It all makes the average Victorian terrace look very tame.
Architecture In The 20th Century by Peter Gössel and Gabriele Leuthäuser is published by TASCHEN, priced £27.99.
As an architectural survey, it’s impressive rather than beautiful. To see the beauty in architecture you need a close- up, which is where something like Taschen’s massive book on Architecture In The 20th Century comes into its own; it’s almost as breathtaking as the Shard’s viewing platform itself.
The inner courtyard of the IG Farben Company building in Germany, by Peter Behrens, 1920-1924. Right: The Seagram Building, New York, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with Philip Johnson, 1954-1958Twentieth-century architecture has its roots in the Industrial Age – when iron and glass first began to be used. By 1925, concrete was just getting going and, by the 1940s, houses were ‘machines for living in’. It took the 1970s to invent the flying roof and, before you knew it, you were in the post-modern cities of the Noughties.
Spain’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, by Frank O Gehry, 1991-1997. Inset: Entrance hall to Tassel Residence in Brussels by Victor Horta, 1892-1893 This progression is briefly described here, but it’s the pictures you’ll want to gaze at and mull over. Take the chapter on concrete containers, for instance. This includes the extraordinary Unité d’Habi- tation by Le Corbusier in Marseille, built between 1947-1952, which marries roof- top ventilation shafts with a running track and a children’s play area.
The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, 1971-1977: the externalised skeleton of the supporting construction dominates the buildingThe post-modern city shows views of the Chicago skyline as well as the stunning Atlantis Apartments block in Miami (1979-1982) with its stinging blue geometric façade into which a ‘punched- out’ square houses a full-grown palm tree. It all makes the average Victorian terrace look very tame.
Architecture In The 20th Century by Peter Gössel and Gabriele Leuthäuser is published by TASCHEN, priced £27.99.