It may seem extraordinary that architects - designers of stationary objects - should concern themselves with automobile design; but the automobile has long touched architects' imaginations, appearing to them as a house on wheels, as mobile accommodation. When the motor-driven vehicle was invented, architects recognised that its image, form and function would affect the quality of people's lives and their surroundings, and that to propose an automobile was a way to perfect the synthesis of art, design and the latest technology. A number of well-known architects liked to pair the architecture of their houses with their favourite automobiles in order to illustrate the close functional and aesthetic relationship between them. Some believed that their cars had to 'look becoming to' their architecture, and included automobiles in perspective views and photographs of their completed buildings, the result being a harmonising composition of the two elements that stressed their close affinity. The celebrated 'Ten Automobiles' exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1953, with its proclamation that 'automobiles are twentieth-century artefacts', brought into focus the automobile as an influential design object. Architects realised the importance of the automobile as anicon of an era and sought not only to design motorcars but to apply the principles of automotive technology and design to their architecture. This book explores automotive design by leading architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Adolf Loos, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Gio Ponti, Carlo Mollino, Norman Foster, Jan Kaplicky and others and its influence on their architecture.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This book has no trouble in supplying something eye-opening on almost every page." (Motorsport, April 2001) "This is an unusual publication, containing some interesting illustrations. Purchasers are likely to have something unique on their bookshelves." (The Automobile, September 2000) "a very pleasing book...typeface is clear, simple and elegant and there is no shortage of images"... (ARQ (Architectural Research Quarterly), Vol. 5, 2001)
From the Back Cover
It may seem extraordinary that architects - designers of stationary objects - should concern themselves with automobile design; but the automobile has long touched architects' imaginations, appearing to them as a house on wheels, as mobile accommodation. When the motor-driven vehicle was invented, architects recognised that its image, form and function would affect the quality of people's lives and their surroundings, and that to propose an automobile was a way to perfect the synthesis of art, design and the latest technology. A number of well-known architects liked to pair the architecture of their houses with their favourite automobiles in order to illustrate the close functional and aesthetic relationship between them. Some believed that their cars had to 'look becoming to' their architecture, and included automobiles in perspective views and photographs of their completed buildings, the result being a harmonising composition of the two elements that stressed their close affinity. The celebrated 'Ten Automobiles' exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1953, with its proclamation that 'automobiles are twentieth-century artefacts', brought into focus the automobile as an influential design object. Architects realised the importance of the automobile as anicon of an era and sought not only to design motorcars but to apply the principles of automotive technology and design to their architecture. This book explores automotive design by leading architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Adolf Loos, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Gio Ponti, Carlo Mollino, Norman Foster, Jan Kaplicky and others and its influence on their architecture.
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More About the Author
Ivan Margolius was born in Prague, where he began studying architecture at the Czech Institute of Technology. In 1966 he arrived in the United Kingdom and completed his training, before practising at Foster and Partners, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, and Yorke Rosenberg Mardall. He is the author and co-author of many award winning historical, architectural and design publications, including 'Prague a guide to twentieth-century century architecture', 'Tatra The Legacy of Hans Ledwinka', 'Art + Architecture', 'Architects + Engineers = Structures','Czech Inspiration' and 'Reflections of Prague: Journeys through the 20th century'. He is the son of JUDr Rudolf Margolius, who was murdered as a result of the infamous Slansky Trial in Prague in 1952, and Heda Margolius Kovaly (author of 'Under A Cruel Star'). Margolius' book 'Reflections of Prague' complements his mother's book and adds additional material and background to his family's story.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A unique, fascinating survey,
By Mel Byars (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Automobiles by Architects (Paperback)
We are recommending this book to the visitors of the designzine.com Web site, the online newsstand for design. While many of the voracious readers of design book have become familiar with some few auto designs by Le Corbusier, Gropius, and others, there was no intelligent study before this contribution by Ivan Margolius, an architect himself, that so fully documents the subject. Happily, the literate text is not infused with the kind of macho techno-speak found in most standard car books. We like that the book was made easy to read by the non-intrusive graphic design of Alun Evans and Katy Hepburn (not the movie star).
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