Building character : the racial politics of modern architectural style / Charles L. Davis II.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, Charles L., II

Series:

Culture, politics, and the built environment.

Culture, politics, and the built environment

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architecture and race--History--19th century.

Architecture and race.

Architecture and race--History--20th century.

Architecture and society--History--19th century.

Architecture and society.

Architecture and society--History--20th century.

Architecture--Psychological aspects.

Architecture.

Democracy and architecture.

Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel, 1814-1879.

Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel.

Semper, Gottfried, 1803-1879--Criticism and interpretation.

Semper, Gottfried.

Sullivan, Louis H., 1856-1924--Criticism and interpretation.

Sullivan, Louis H.

Lescaze, William, 1896-1969--Criticism and interpretation.

Lescaze, William.

Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959--Criticism and interpretation.

Wright, Frank Lloyd.

Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959.

Sullivan, Louis H., 1856-1924.

Semper, Gottfried, 1803-1879.

Lescaze, William, 1896-1969.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 275 pages).

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2019]

Summary:

In the nineteenth-century paradigm of architectural organicism, the notion that buildings possessed character provided architects with a lens for relating the buildings they designed to the populations they served. Advances in scientific race theory enabled designers to think of "race" and "style" as manifestations of natural law: just as biological processes seemed to inherently regulate the racial characters that made humans a perfect fit for their geographical contexts, architectural characters became a rational product of design. Parallels between racial and architectural characters provided a rationalist model of design that fashioned some of the most influential national building styles of the past, from the pioneering concepts of French structural rationalism and German tectonic theory to the nationalist associations of the Chicago Style, the Prairie Style, and the International Style. In Building Character, Charles Davis traces the racial charge of the architectural writings of five modern theorists--Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Gottfried Semper, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and William Lescaze--to highlight the social, political, and historical significance of the spatial, structural, and ornamental elements of modern architectural styles.

Contents:

Part I. The Aryan character of alpine architecture. Campfires in the salon ; Beyond the primitive hut – Part II. The whiteness of American architecture. The search for an American architecture ; When public housing was white – Conclusion. Race, nature, and nation in postwar American architecture.

Notes:

Includes chapter notes (pages 235-254), bibliographical references (pages 255-264), and index.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on April 09, 2020).

ISBN:

9780822966821

0822966824

9780822986638

0822986639

OCLC:

1117708822