Modern Buildings in Britain
A Gazetteer
Published on 7. April 2022
Book
Hardback
608 pages
978-0-241-53463-2 (ISBN)
Description
The definitive illustrated guide to modern British architecture, from one of the most acclaimed critics at work today
Modernism is now a century old, and its consequences are all around us, built into our everyday lived environments. Its place in Britain's history is fiercely contested, and its role in our future is the subject of ongoing controversy - but modernist buildings have undoubtedly changed our cities, politics and identity forever.
In Modern Buildings in Britain, Owen Hatherley applauds the ambition and explores the significance of this most divisive of architectures, travelling from Aberystwyth to Aberdeen, from St Ives to Shetland, in search of our most important and distinctive modern buildings. Drawing on hundreds of examples, we learn how the concrete of Brutalism embodies post-war civic principles, how corporate values were expressed in the glass facades of the International Style, and why Ecomodernist experimentation is often consigned to the geographic fringes. As Hatherley considers the social, political and cultural value of these structures - a number of which are threatened by demolition - two linked questions emerge: what happens to a building after it has been lived in, and what becomes of an idea when its time has passed?
With more than six hundred pages of trenchantly opinionated, often witty analysis, and with three hundred photographs in duotone and colour, Modern Buildings in Britain is a landmark contribution to the history of British architecture.
Modernism is now a century old, and its consequences are all around us, built into our everyday lived environments. Its place in Britain's history is fiercely contested, and its role in our future is the subject of ongoing controversy - but modernist buildings have undoubtedly changed our cities, politics and identity forever.
In Modern Buildings in Britain, Owen Hatherley applauds the ambition and explores the significance of this most divisive of architectures, travelling from Aberystwyth to Aberdeen, from St Ives to Shetland, in search of our most important and distinctive modern buildings. Drawing on hundreds of examples, we learn how the concrete of Brutalism embodies post-war civic principles, how corporate values were expressed in the glass facades of the International Style, and why Ecomodernist experimentation is often consigned to the geographic fringes. As Hatherley considers the social, political and cultural value of these structures - a number of which are threatened by demolition - two linked questions emerge: what happens to a building after it has been lived in, and what becomes of an idea when its time has passed?
With more than six hundred pages of trenchantly opinionated, often witty analysis, and with three hundred photographs in duotone and colour, Modern Buildings in Britain is a landmark contribution to the history of British architecture.
Reviews / Votes
The latest instalment in one of the most extraordinary oeuvres in writing about space and form, and a welcome antidote to the pre-industrial phantasmagoria of the new monarch -- Thomas Meaney, Best Books of the Year * New Statesman * Owen Hatherley, long an eloquent proselytiser for municipal Modernism, has produced a new Britannica for our era of reassessment... Hatherley has superbly documented a moment in which we are rapidly losing what many have only just learnt to appreciate -- Edwin Heathcote * Financial Times * It is an addictive book to dip in and out of, to open at random to learn something new. ... an approachable guide... Hatherley's introduction is possibly the most lucid and concise history of modern architecture in Britain you will find anywhere -- Oliver Wainwright * Guardian * Insightful and inspiring... One of its strengths is the devotion and persistence with which Owen Hatherley has sought out gems across the country... [A] phenomenal work of gathering and observation -- Rowan Moore * Observer * Owen Hatherley is something of a phenomenon... Hatherley is a "beton brut" Ruskin for the twenty-first century... The book is a triumph and a thrill ride. A great big doorstopper, it is a classy production generally, generously illustrated with Chris Matthews's superb photography... The historical overview in the introduction is a masterpiece of lucid, pithy explication' -- Otto Saumarez Smith * Apollo * A weighty, glossy gazetteer of the most significant British modernist buildings... Packed with pleasurable details... [Hatherley] is trenchant, never fawning; a provocateur, and a good one - and more entertaining than Nicholas Pevsner... He writes glorious contextual critiques... Emotional and affecting -- Helen Barrett * Spectator * A masterpiece. A book that distills an accumulated life's work of thinking, seeing and writing -- Jonathan Nunn Swashbuckling... A very considerable achievement... Being a gazetteer, this is a book to dip in and out of, and you will keep dipping in and out, it's an addictive process that is made easy to navigate -- Hugh Pearman * RIBA Journal * The best blueprint for understanding Britain's modern architecture... An erudite and informative new classic ... a book that is colossal in ambition, range, and achievement -- Darran Anderson * Elephant * A book that will get you excited about architecture -- Teddy Jamieson * The Herald * Those with more than a passing interest in modernism will have great fun planning excursions with the help of the book's geographically arranged chapters -- David Nicholls * House and Garden * Hatherley's urban perambulations are in the great tradition of some of the best writers on architecture and design... Over 600 pages, our author and guide present us with a very personal selection, seeking out the diamonds in the rough and finding just the right pithy observations to praise the unusual, while damning the neglect, philistinism, and opposition that often comes with the territory -- Jonathan Bell * Wallpaper* * A gorgeous treat... Hatherley is a flaneur with a cause. He incites his readers to engage, as he does, with what isaround them, no matter how banal it may appear at first glance, and to take nothing for granted -- Jonathan Meades * Literary Review *
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 260 mm
Width: 178 mm
Thickness: 58 mm
Weight
2020 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-53463-2 (9780241534632)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2022
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€14.99
Available for download
Person
Owen Hatherley writes for Architectural Review, the Guardian and the London Review of Books, among others. He is the author of several books, including Trans-Europe Express and Landscapes of Communism, and is the Culture Editor of Tribune.