by Tom Wolfe
First published 1981
Tom Wolfe takes a wrecking ball to the reputations of the titans of 20th-century architecture. From the sleek, glass-and-steel towers of Mies van der Rohe to the abstract, machine-inspired forms of Le Corbusier, Wolfe dissects the Bauhaus movement and the cult of personality that elevated its leading figures. He reveals the cracks in their grand visions, from the unlivable spaces they created to the corruption of their original ideals. In Wolfe's hands, the so-called "International Style" is exposed as a hollow, self-aggrandizing charade - and one that has had disastrous consequences for the built environment.
Genres: art, 20th-century, non-fiction, criticism, architecture
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: critical-analysis
Setting: United States
Period: 20th Century
143 pages · Hardcover · Farrar Straus & Giroux