The architecture of social reform : housing, tradition and German Modernism / Isabel Rousset.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rousset, Isabel, author.

Series:

Studies in design and material culture.

Studies in Design and Material Culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architecture, Domestic--Germany--History--20th century.

Architecture, Domestic.

Modern movement (Architecture)--Germany.

Modern movement (Architecture).

Social problems--Germany--History--20th century.

Social problems.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations (black and white); digital file(s).

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, 2022.

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

data file

Biography/History:

Isabel Rousset teaches architectural history at Curtin University.

Summary:

This book constitutes the first major study of tradition as a field of political and cultural contestation in modern architectural culture. Examining German-language design theory from 1848 to 1918, Rousset traces the diverse and fascinating efforts by architectural reformists to confront class antagonism through the provision of simple, traditionally minded domestic design. Based on extensive original research and copiously illustrated, The architecture of social reform introduces readers to a host of modern architects, urbanists, reform experts, and art critics, including Gottfried Semper, Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, Karl Henrici, Josef Stübben, Camillo Sitte, Rudolf Eberstadt, Walter Curt Behrendt, Werner Hegemann, Karl Scheffler, Hermann Muthesius, Paul Schultze-Naumburg, Albert Gessner, Albert E. Brinckmann, and Paul Mebes, who sought to reform housing along traditionalist lines from the scale of the living room to that of the city-region. Countering the narrative that tradition signified the last breath of an eclectic and defunct historicism, The architecture of social reform breaks new ground in the assessment of modern architecture by revealing how architects and other design experts engaged with tradition in order to stake out a socially progressive position for themselves while learning from the past. Readers interested in continuing debates over the future of architecture, housing, and politics will find this book essential reading.

Contents:

Building from the inside out

The interiorisation of life

Streets for movement, streets for dwelling

The culture of the visible.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 25 Feb 2026).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher-supplied metadata; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9781526169969

1526169967

9781526159670

1526159678

9781526159694

1526159694

OCLC:

1320808669