An Introduction to Architectural Theory 1968 to the Present [Hardcover]

A sharp and lively text that covers issues in depth but not to the point that they become inaccessible to beginning students, An Introduction to Architectural Theory is the first narrative history of this period, charting the veritable revolution in architectural thinking that has taken place, as well as the implications of this intellectual upheaval.

• The first comprehensive and critical history of architectural theory over the last fifty years
• surveys the intellectual history of architecture since 1968, including criticisms of high modernism, the rise of postmodern and poststructural theory, critical regionalism and tectonics
• Offers a comprehensive overview of the significant changes that architectural thinking has undergone in the past fifteen years
• Includes an analysis of where architecture stands and where it will likely move in the coming years

List of Illustrations viii

Prelude: The 1960s 1

Technology and Ecology 3

Social Underpinnings of Modernism 6

1968 11

Part One: 1970s 15

1 Pars Destruens: 1968–1973 17

Venturi and Scott Brown 18

Rossi and Tafuri 23

The Milan Triennale 27

The IAUS and the New York Five 30

2 The Crisis of Meaning 37

Semiotics and Architecture 39

Five on Five 43

Gray and White 45

Variations on a Theme 48

3 Early Postmodernism 53

The Language of Postmodernism 54

Consummation in Venice 57

European Counterpoints 59

4 Modernism Abides 65&l“*