Sean Rothery
Architecture, like print, is ubiquitous, a part of thefabric of culture which touches every aspect of our lives while reflecting, and articulating, socio-economic change. As the twentieth century draws to a close, the architecture inscribed in its early decades attracts ever-closer scrutiny. The design movements in fin-de-siècle Europe saw manifestations of modernism combine with unprecedented advances in technology and American machine culture, emerging in a ’new architecture’: Viennese Rationalism supplanted free-form Art Nouveau; Beaux Arts gave way to Le Corbusier; bizarre brick Expressionism of the Amsterdam School coexisted with De Stijl’s bare abstractions. Modern architecture in the form of the International Style of Gropius and the Bauhaus reached its apogee in the early 1930s, but styles scorned by this orthodoxy - Art Deco and stripped Classicism - flourished alongside it and are now being reappraised. Ireland and the New Architecture 1900-1940 is the first comprehensive study of its subject. It describes the pioneering buildings of the period and examines their intellectual scaffolding and the influence of international design movements, demonstrating that Ireland was no architectural backwater, as is often assumed. It looks in detail at the writings and examples of early modernism and the way in which architects of a fledgling Free State went beyond Britain to France, Holland, Scandinavia, Austria, Germany and America for models of new structures in both private and public spheres of building. A generous selection of over two hundred drawings and photographs, along with extended interview material with survivors from the time, give this book unique value. It is both a stimulating work of reference and a survey-guide to Ireland’s position in, and contribution to, the mainstream of modern architecture.
