This groundbreaking book examines the relationship between the modernist architecture of the 1920s and 1930s and that era's preoccupations with health, cleanliness, fresh air and sunshine, exploring how utopian notions of the 'clean machine' and the hygienist movement inspired the pure geometric forms and sparkling surfaces of early modernist buildings. Anyone with an interest in architecture and/or modernism will find this original approach to a popular theme both engaging and enlightening.