Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, and the Road to Modern Architecture
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Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, and the Road to Modern Architecture by Werner Oechslin
Contemporary architectural theory emphasizes the importance of 'tectonics', the term used to articulate the relationship between construction, structure and architectural expression. Despite the term's currency, little consideration has been given to its origins or historical significance. In this 2002 study, Werner Oechslin examines the attempts by early modern theoreticians of architecture to grapple with the relationship between appearance and essence, which is crucial to the discourse of tectonics. Referring to the writings of Joseph Lux, Karl Bötticher, and Adolf Loos, Oechslin follows this development from theories of a classical architecture without columnar orders to a Modern architecture upholding the 'truth'of its own architectural expression. Oechslin locates the culmination of this discourse in the work of Adolf Loos and in Le Corbusier's frequent references to Ancient Greece as the precedent of Modern architecture's honesty. This volume includes an anthology of primary texts by several theorists published in English.
"In this collction of essays, as concise as they are broad- ranging and erudite, oechslin explored the multiple implications for modernity of two key, and co-dependent terms of 19-th century art theory, and offered an adroitly selected anthology of excerpts from architectural theories" Harvard Design Magazine
"Those interested in a narrative review of writings on architecture, presented with intensity and in detail, will be pleased with, informed by, and interested in Oechslin's offering." Centropa
"Those interested in a narrative review of writings on architecture, presented with intensity and in detail, will be pleased with, informed by, and interested in Oechslin's offering." Centropa
Werner Oechslin (b. 1944) is an art historian, archaeologist, philosopher, and mathematician. He taught at MIT and Harvard University after completing his doctoral studies in Zurich in 1970. He has been a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology since 1985, and from 1986 to 2006, he was the director of the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Architecture. His research focuses on architectural philosophy and architecture's cultural history. Palladianismus: Andrea Palladio - Werk und Wirkung (2008) is his most recent publication. In Einsiedeln, he founded the Bibliothek Werner Oechslin.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780521623469 |
| ISBN 10 | 0521623464 |
| Title | Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, and the Road to Modern Architecture |
| Author | Werner Oechslin |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Year published | 2002-07-04 |
| Number of pages | 282 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |