Sir John Soane's position in the history of British architecture is extraordinary. As one of the revolutionary innovators of international neoclassicism, he has a stature comparable to that of the great French and German architects Claude Nicolas Ledoux and Kart Friedrich Schinkel, and like them he has served as a source of inspiration to subsequent generations of architects, most particularly in recent years. This wide-ranging book considers Soane's architectural achievements as well as his life and public role.
The book reproduces over one hundred of Soane's drawings and contains specially commissioned photographs of his original models and existing buildings. The contributors to the volume discuss all of the architect's major commissions, including the Dulwich College Art Gallery, the Law Courts at Westminster, and the Bank of England. Throughout Soane's work two dominant qualities emerge: a distinctive handling of space, primarily in interiors, and an abstracted linear style that evolved over the course of his career.
