20/20
John Pardey
Lund Humphries, September 2020
Hardcover | Page Size inches | 224 pages | 150 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-1848223530 | $49.99
PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
Ordered chronologically, and global in scope, this book provides an account of modern architecture through the prism of 20 of the most influential houses built over the past century. By telling the stories of these houses, it offers a fascinating biography of some of the greatest modern architects.
John Pardey examines the ground-breaking ideas, sensitivity to detailing and materials in houses designed by the likes of Gerrit Rietveld, Le Corbusier, Adolf Loos, Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Giuseppe Terragni, Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames and Oscar Niemeyer, and seeks to discover what lessons they can still offer for architects practising today.
John Pardey is a leading architect, the winner of national RIBA awards and the 2013 Gold Medal for Architecture in Wales, whose practice John Pardey Architects (JPA) was named one of Britain's top six residential design practices in the Sunday Times in April 2014. He is the author of Utzon: Tow Houses on Majorca (2005) and Louisiana and Beyond: the Work of Vilhelm Wohlert (2007) and contributed to Houses: Created by Peter Aldington (2016).
REFERRAL LINKS:
dDAB COMMENTARY:
Although the subtitle of this book, "Twenty Great Houses of the Twentieth Century," clearly defines the 20/20 title, I can't help think the title is more than implying hindsight. After all, the 20th century is now twenty years away, enabling some distance to tell the stories of some important houses, while also evaluating some aspects of them. That architect John Pardey limits his selection to roughly 50 years of the 20th century — from 1924 to 1975, precisely — enables even more 20/20 hindsight, more ways of looking at houses from a remove. Only one of the twenty houses, the most recent one, was designed by an architect now living, Glenn Murcutt. The rest, from Frank Lloyd Wright to Jørn Utzon, died many years ago, so Pardey doesn't need to worry about upsetting anyone with what he writes. Nevertheless, by focusing on some acknowledged masterpieces of residential architecture, there's nearly universal acclaim in his coverage of each house.
Each house is given an average of ten pages, most of them taken up by Pardey's words. His writing is very good and he does an excellent job of giving background on the architects before explaining the residential commissions, the designs, and what happened after the houses were completed. The 20/20 hindsight, combined with a focus on architectural icons, means there's no shortage of book-length studies on the individual houses that Pardey referenced, such as Richard Weston's slim book on Aalto's Villa Mairea or even Pardey's own book on Utzon's two houses in Majorca. Preservation also enters the picture, logically given the many decades since the houses were completed but also because some of the modern construction techniques were innovative or even misguided. Wright's Fallingwater and Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye are just two instances where Pardey touches on the efforts needed to rehabilitate the houses.
The easiest critique to level at a book like 20/20 is in regard to its selection. It's hard to argue that each house is great, but even Pardey acknowledges that 19 of the 20 houses were designed by men. The one exception is not Eileen Gray's E.1027, though, it is the Eames House, which was designed by husband-and-wife designers Charles and Ray Eames. So a bit more diversity in a book titled 20/20, published in 2020, would have been welcome; more than the geographical diversity, that is, which does spread the houses across four continents. Excusing the selection is what apparently drove it: Pardey has visited all twenty of them in person. Who knows, maybe E.1027 is on that list, but it's been closed for restoration each time he tried to go.
Selection aside, my main quibble with the book is the floor plans. I'm glad each house includes them, but they are too small. I'm guessing this happened so Pardey's relatively long text on each house could fit, without making the book too long or expensive. Ultimately this book is about the text: the stories, descriptions, and impressions from an architect who is passionate about residential architecture and recognizes the good and bad of the greats (I like his points about some of Fallingwater's deficiencies). So if you're looking for more depth on houses that have been given just cursory treatment in far too many books (mine included), 20/20 is for you.
SPREADS:
