Architecture, modernité, modernisation

Avec cet ouvrage, Jean-Louis Cohen, architecte et historien, et Monique Eleb, psychologue et sociologue, proposent une promenade architecturale dans le Paris intra-muros et sa proche banlieue. Trente-trois bâtiments photographiés par Antonio Martinelli sont visités parmi la multitude de réalisations qui ont marqué le XXe siècle. Ils ont été choisis en fonction de leur contribution au paysage urbain, de leur force esthétique et de leur rôle dans la transformation des modes de vie. Des architectes du début du siècle à qui les découvertes techniques ont permis de se libérer des conventions à la génération actuelle qui a retrouvé une dimension intellectuelle après la crise architecturale des années 1960-1970, on suit dans le Paris d'aujourd'hui les transformations d'identité d'une ville dont le centre dense est enserré dans une agglomération de plus de dix millions d'habitants. Par la succession et la mise en correspondance d'édifices en apparence étrangers les uns aux autres, des ossatures de béton des frères Perret aux prismes transparents de Jean Nouvel, Jean-Louis Cohen et Monique Eleb révèlent combien l'idéal d'une architecture rationnelle et lisible aura marqué l'architecture du siècle. This book takes the form of an architectural promenade devised by the architect and historian Jean-Louis Cohen and the psychologist and sociologist Monique Eleb. Thirty-three buildings in Paris and the inner suburbs are presented with photographs by Antonio Martinelli. Selected from the multitude of buildings which have marked the 20th century, each has been chosen for the contribution it makes to the cityscape, for its aesthetic value and for the role it has played in transforming life-styles. From the technical discoveries which enabled architects to break free from conventions in the early 20th century, to the rediscovery of an intellectual dimension by the present generation of architects in the wake of the architectural crisis of the 1960s and 1970s, this itinerary through today's Paris reveals transformations in the identity of the densely-built capital city at the center of an agglomeration populated by over ten million people. By explaining the connections between a sequence of buildings which look very different from one archer, ran no from the Perret brothers' concrete frames to Jean Nouvel's transparent prisms, Jean-Louis Cohen and Monique Eleb reveal the extent to which the long-established French architectural ideal of rationality and legibility has marked the architecture of the 20th century

The most comprehensive and far-ranging single-volume history of twentieth-century architecture. Written by a trusted authority in the fields of architecture and urbanism and a prominent writer, critic, curator and teacher. Exhaustively illustrated with buildings, projects, plans, drawings, and publications by well-known masters and rediscovered figures. Covers all parts of the globe better than any comparable history of the period. Destined to become the standard reference on this time period for every student of architecture.