Focusing on the golden era of world's fairs, from the 1930s to the 1970s, this book offers a nostalgic glimpse of the future in vintage photographs, postcards, previously unpublished memorabilia, and drawings of pavilions, created by such designers and architects as Buckminster Fuller, Norman Bel Geddes, Kisho Kurokawa, and Le Corbusier. Innovative, informative, and entertaining, this souvenir of yesterday's tomorrow is a superb tour of the achievements of avant-garde architecture and design.
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About the Author
Paola Antonelli is Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Andrew Garn is an award-winning photographer based in New York whose books include Subway Style, Bethlehem Steel, and The Houseboat Book. Udo Kultermann is a New York-based architectural historian and art historian, and author of over thirty-five books, including History of Art Theory, History of Art History, and Modern Architecture in Color. Stephen Van Dyk is the Librarian at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tomorrow arrived and departed,
This review is from: Exit to Tomorrow: History of the Future, World's Fair Architecture, Design, Fashion 1933-2005 (Hardcover)
An interesting though none too vigorous survey of thirteen world fairs and expositions. It really covers twelve in any detail because the 1942 Rome effort didn't get much passed the planning stage. Udo Kultermann provides a twenty page fairs overview describing the inspired origins of the 1851 Crystal Palace and 1889 Paris Fair which set the standard for future endeavors (incidentally, in my copy page twenty-one repeats three paragraphs from page nine).
Two Fairs, Chicago (1933/4) and New York (1939/40) probably deserve the extensive coverage they get in the book. Both occurred at trying times and projected a bright future courtesy of science and both had huge attendances. After the Second World War fairs gradually changed from mechanical and science oriented to the problems and suggested solutions facing man in the modern world. Whatever the theme any fair allowed designers and architects to indulge in fantasy for a few months before the structures were torn down. Fortunately there are still standing reminders of these past futures: the Atomium, Brussels (1958) the Seattle (1962) Space Needle, the Unisphere from New York (1964) or Moshe Sadie's Habitat from Montreal Expo (1967) for example. The book's sub-title: World's Fairs Architecture, Design, Fashion 1933--2005 is basically covered pictorially with two hundred photos or more. I thought this had an inherent editorial weakness because they are mostly PR shots and unfortunately the quality various enormously. I think a much more rigorous photo selection would have helped by deleting several of the soft focus or confusing images. Strangely there is a major omission: none of the Fairs have a site map. The addition of the standard aerial or three-quarters looking down on all the exhibits and pavilions would seem an obvious graphic to include for each featured fair. Exit Tomorrow will give you a brief overview of past optimism and the two page bibliography has plenty of books for further study, especially the wonderful New York World's Fair of 1939/40. ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pictures but not much depth,
By
This review is from: Exit to Tomorrow: History of the Future, World's Fair Architecture, Design, Fashion 1933-2005 (Hardcover)
I liked looking at the pictures, but I missed having more text. The text is only intros to each fair, and to be honest, what's there is bland, contradictory (more than one fair is credited with introducing television. for example) and there was even one page reprinted out of sync. Still, the pictures are mostly new to me on some of the less well-written-up expos. So, good for filling a collection, not a starting point.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Postcards From Yesterday,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Exit to Tomorrow: History of the Future, World's Fair Architecture, Design, Fashion 1933-2005 (Hardcover)
This is an interesting but disappointing book. There seem to be more illustrated postcards and illustrator renderings rather than actual photographs of the actual architecture. There is a dramatic and frightening photo of the Paris 1937 Germany pavilion that is captioned. The caption discusses it and its ominous juxstaposition with the Soviet pavilion but then fails to picture it. Perhaps the photos I am looking for don't exist but that is what I was looking for in this book. Still, it is a good start, many of the pictures and illustrations of the architecture are fascinating. Perhaps someone will build on this publication. A worlds fair of the past worlds fair's architecture would be awesome to visit.
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