Description
Book SynopsisOechslin considers the origins of 'tectonics', the term used to articulate the relationship between construction structure, and architectural expression, through the work of early modernist architects Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos. The 2002 volume includes an anthology of primary texts by several theoreticians published in English.
Trade Review"In this collction of essays, as concise as they are broad- ranging and erudite, oechslin explored the multiple implications for modernity of two key, and co-dependent terms of 19-th century art theory, and offered an adroitly selected anthology of excerpts from architectural theories." Harvard Design Magazine
"Those interested in a narrative review of writings on architecture, presented with intensity and in detail, will be pleased with, informed by, and interested in Oechslin's offering." Centropa
Table of ContentsPreface; Introduction; 1. The opposite of the issue of style: necessity, unity, immanent coherence, the naked, simple and true; 2. 'Tectonics' and the 'theory of raiment'; 3. Disenchantment with 'Bötticher's overly intellectual work' and the postulation of a way to overcome the 'Semperian mechanistic conception of the essence of art'; 4. 'Stilhülse und Kern': from theory to metaphor - and its deployment by Otto Wagner; 5. Adolf Loos - against the Zeitgeist; 6. '… ad usum Delphini' - the 'element event' of the Raiment Dissolved, and the ineluctable return - or recognized tenacity - of the Hull; Anthology of primary sources.
