Product Description

With their original and innovative projects, Amyas Connell and Basil Ward from New Zealand and the British architect Colin Lucas introduced a new and uncompromising contemporary language of architecture to England in the 1930s. Their simple, clear shapes in concrete and glass still resonate with a novel approach to functional form-giving. This is the first full study of one of the most controversial of modernist practices and is destined to be of classic importance. It opens with a fascinating overview of the historical background and then focuses on detailed studies of individual houses, social housing schemes, shops and cafés. Each study is fully illustrated with contemporary plans and photographs showing the buildings as they were being built and newly constructed, as well as more recent photographs to show later alterations and changes. The book includes a complete list of projects, a time line and a full bibliography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #117726 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
The visual imagery is outstanding and constitutes a major new resource to students of the period - whole sheets of annotated working drawings, fine professional photography, both black and white from the period and colour in more recent visits, and a miscellany of sites in contruction and intriguing personal snapshots. The richness and diversity of this material more than compensates for the somewhat disjointed layout that results. Introductory chapters usefully sketch in the personal and period background, revealing the stronf Classical grounding of the two older partners. A whole page drawing of Campidooglio, exquisitely rendered by Connell a Rome Scholar, is tempting to cut out and frame as an artwork in its own right. --Architectural Review

There are gaps on the shelves of architectural monographs of the twentieth century that have long needed filling. Until this year there was a gap under Connell Ward & Lucas. At last, the big ship has come into harbour, laden with a rich cargo of photographs and detailed information on the buildings, more numerous, probably, than most of us realised. --c20

About the Author
Dennis Sharp is an architect, a writer, a critic and a publisher. He serves as Vice President of the Architectural Association where he trained, and was Senior Lecturer and founding editor of the AA Quarterly. He is Executive Editor of World Architecture and International Architecture. Professor Sharp has received international awards for his writings and criticism as well as awards for his buildings. His books include monographs on Calatrava, Kurokawa and Nicoletti. He lives in London. Sally Rendel is a practising architect and a member of the Twentieth Century Society's casework committee. She has edited special issues of Scroope and Architectural Design. Sally lives in London.