German architectural theory and the search for modern identity

About this book

German Architectural Theory and the Search for Modern Identity presents for the first time to English-language readers an overview of the theories on architecture in nineteenth-century Austria and Germany. Drawing on writings by architects, historians, philosophers, and critics, Mitchell Schwarzer offers an exhaustive history of the debates on style, industry, nationalism, iron technology, and artistic expression, all of which inform modern architecture. He argues that architecture in the modern era cannot be explained according to the progress of structural, functional, or artistic forces. Rather, he establishes modernity as a series of debates on the parameters of architectural knowledge itself and the identity of the architectural profession in a rapidly industrializing world. Describing theory through its conflicts and unresolved questions, Schwarzer uncovers the complex nature of modern pluralism, one that is deeply relevant at the turn of the millennium.