Customer Reviews

Marcel Breuer, Architect: The Career and the Buildings

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In his six-decade career as a Bauhaus teacher and furniture maker, as a collaborator with Walter Gropius in London and Cambridge, and as head of his own office in New York, Breuer deserves to be ranked with the great 20th-century formgivers. And yet he never did achieve the fame of Mies, though he was far more prolific and humane, or of Gropius, though he was a much better designer. If he is remembered today it is for the Whitney Museum in Manhattan, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and his modern houses in New England; however, as this comprehensive survey shows, there was much more-mostly forgotten and quite out of fashion. This eloquent, handsomely illustrated volume may help to shift public perceptions and stir admiration for the architect's tough, sculptural take on modernism.

There are two sections in this book. It begins with the biography which takes up about 130 pages and provides with valuable behind stories. The other portion of the book is mainly dedicated to the well researched catalogue of his built and unbuilt works. The book might be worth it for the stories and for the comprehensiveness. However, personally I was hoping to see more information on each project especially if for a well known work like Whitney museum on which two photos of facade, one of lobby and a section drawing cover the whole project. In most cases, a page or two, sometimes half a page is dedicated to each project or work, which gives good impression and starting point to learn of his works but not sufficient in itself. It would have been more helpful if new color photos and redrawn drawings are included, but as I said, this is a catalogue in order to lead to further research and provoke more interests in Marcel. It is unfortunate that I was actually looking for a book which would provide me with more detailed information on his buildings and projects in this book. I haven't had a chance to peek into newer publication by Vitra museum since I am located in Asia, and I do not have an excess to public libraries or book stores to research prior to purchases, but I wish I would have taken a look at that book. For anyone interested, Gustavo Gili's 2G issue on Marcel's houses provide excellent documentation on some of his houses in America with new attractive color photos and drawings, and I want to see something like that on his larger buildings.

This is the reference book on Breuer. For those who are interested to get a full scope of this under-rated architect's work, this is the book to buy. It includes a survey in phases of his career, along with a catalogue raisonne of his built and unbuilt work. The projects speak nostalgically, of that period in the 50's and 60's when good design went beyond the jargon of 'blobs' and 'smooth surfaces' and empty forms. Granted, Breuer was not immune from committing some major mistakes, such as the UNESCO or other institutional buildings that turned modernism into a bad name, but this should not discredit his whole oeuvre. This book corrects some of these misconceptions. Hyman has done a wonderful job.