The original bald and unconvincing narrative that triggered this book is that put about by Alison and Peter Smithson in their 1981 Heroic Period of Modern Architecture, limiting modernism to 1915-1929. This fiction is re-contextualized with studies of iconic Bauhaus bald heads - Schlemmer, Itten, etc., such Literal Baldness is the subject of Part 1.
Part 2 Phenomenal Baldness unwinds the Bauhaus narrative put about by Walter Gropius, one that has held water for 100 years. Spin doctor Gropius manipulated his Bauhaus successes into a cornerstone of post WW2 modernism. Cracks in this story are now emerging along with the fact that Gropius was in hindsight, not a very good architect.
Attacks on the Bauhaus like those by Rudolph Schwartz or Tom Wolf as well as a comprehensive list of Gropius hand-holders, and those edited out of his narrative are here explored.
To conclude Gropius is compared to his contemporary Bruno Taut, a far more interesting and talented architect.
This book like Peter Wilson's previous Bedtime Stories for Architects or Some Reasons for Traveling to Italy is written in his unique anecdotal style, savoring Shandyisms and the quirks of history.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Hardcover (Sweden)
Gewebe-Einband
Illustrationen
A book of collected essays with numerous illustrations and photographs by Peter Wilson.
Maße
Höhe: 19 cm
Breite: 13.4 cm
Dicke: 2 cm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-3-906946-42-9 (9783906946429)
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Autor*in
Architekt
Dr h.c. Peter Wilson is an architect who grew up in Australia where he studied architecture for three years before running away to complete his degree at London's Architectural Association. Some 45 years later Melbourne University reeled him in to give him an Honorary Doctorate, this was a few years after the Australian Architects Institute had awarded him its annual Gold Medal on the basis of built works in Europe by the German based office of BOLLES+WILSON.
Wilson's early theoretical research on narrative in architecture is the subject of a special issue of the RIBA JoA (Journal of Architecture, 2021). Other monographs include: Inspiration and Process, Moleskine It. (2011), El Croquis (nos. 47, 67, 105) and Electa It. (2004). He is the author of Western Objects - Eastern Fields (AA 1986), Some Reasons for Travelling to Italy (AA 2015 and MIT press 2022) and Some Reasons for Travelling to Albania (About Books, 2019). BOLLES+WILSON have recently completed the National Library of Luxembourg.