Book Review: Age of the Masters

Age of the Masters: A Personal View of Modern Architecture by Reyner Banham, published by Architectural Press, 1975. Paperback, 170 pages. (Amazon)



One of the most unique architectural critics of the last half of the 20th century, Banham contributed not just one, but many significant texts during his career: Theory and Design in the First Marchine Age, The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment, and Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies in particular. Masters, written initially in 1962 and revised for a 1975 printing, finds the critic assessing the impact of the Modern Movement through its architects and buildings. Although the title refers to architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Walter Gropius, others are featured throughout the roughly chronological presentation of important works, from the Schröder House by Rietveld to Mies's National Gallery in Berlin. Obvious landmarks like the Eames and Robie Houses, Unité d'Habitation, the Seagram Building, the Bauhaus, the TWA Terminal, Brasilia, and Habitat are included, but so are lesser-known structures like Bruce Goff's Ford House, the Climatron in St. Louis, CLASP prototype schools in Italy, and the US Atomic Energy Commission Pavilion from 1960. What each work has in common is Banham's appreciation, his unique point of view coming across in every paragraph. Before the presentation of projects, he sets up four chapters that lay out his definition of Modern architecture - function, form, construction, and space - helping to frame the ideas he presents for each project and lend an understanding to these architects and their contributions to the environment.

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