The Best of British Architecture 1980 To 2000

Architecture is presently at the cross-roads. In Britain the Modern Movement was very unpopular with the public and during the 1960s and 1970s there was an outcry against the post-war "comprehensive redevelopment" of our cities and the proliferation of tall slab- and point-blocks of flats and offices. In the 1980s and 1990s our architects are trying hard to design in a more acceptable way, to give architecture a more human face and, at the same time, to be more adventurous. Much of...
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Architecture is presently at the cross-roads. In Britain the Modern Movement was very unpopular with the public and during the 1960s and 1970s there was an outcry against the post-war "comprehensive redevelopment" of our cities and the proliferation of tall slab- and point-blocks of flats and offices. In the 1980s and 1990s our architects are trying hard to design in a more acceptable way, to give architecture a more human face and, at the same time, to be more adventurous. Much of this new work has been illustrated in architectural journals round the world, but there is no book which summarizes it, puts it in a social context and suggests directions in which it is moving. The Best of British Architecture 1980-2000 suggests that British architecture, as the new century approaches, is moving in ten different directions - modified modern, vernacular modern, post-modern, classical revival, hi-tech, contextual, fun, refurbishment, participation and deconstruction. Each chapter examines one of these directions and gives examples of some of the significant buildings, built during the 1980s and being designed in the 1990s in each category, at home and overseas.; Numerous colour and black-and-white photographs, architects drawings and plans, are used to illustrate all of the case studies. The book is the first comprehensive critical survey of the best of end-of-the-century British architecture. It features buildings by the best known of British architects - Foster, Grimshaw, Rogers, Stirling - as well as dozens of other individuals and practices. It will be of interest to everyone with an interest in the way architecture is moving - practising architects and planners, students and teachers of architecture, and general readers - who are perplexed by the multi-directional way in which today's architecture is developing - and to all those interested in the quality of our environment. It is also perhaps an answer to the Prince of Wales' harsh words about "modern" architecture, illustrating and commenting on, as it does, buildings which he dislikes as well as a few of his favourites.