Alan Powers

A look at how books can be incorporated into the interior design of a home, with tips on storage and display and advice on custom-building bookshelves, includes step-by-step instructions for five different projects.

Living with Books

An exploration of the Bauhaus school and its legacy in the context of the modernist period, including its wider influence on art, design, and education. Bauhaus Goes West is the story of cultural and artistic exchange between Germany and the West over a period of seventy years. It presents a view of the influential Bauhaus school in relation to the wider modernist period, distinguishing between the received idea of the Bauhaus and the documented reality. Initially, the Bauhaus was seen as an educational experiment, only later was it recognized as a style and a movement. Working from meticulous research, Alan Powers reexamines speculations about the reception and understanding of individuals connected with the Bauhaus school and what they ultimately achieved. Looking in greater detail at the theory and practice of art, design, and architecture between the arts and crafts movement and modernism, this book challenges the assumption that the 1920s represented a void of reactionary conservatism. Bauhaus Goes West offers an opportunity to recover some of the overlooked aspects of avant-garde that ran parallel with the work of the Bauhaus, such as the film-making of Francis Brugui re and Len Lye, and the development of art instruction for children under Marion Richardson and the London County Council.

Bauhaus Goes West: Modern Art and Design in Britain and America

John Summerson

Derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture in antiquity, the classical style has long dominated the history of western architecture from the Renaissance to the present. Sir John Summersons timeless text, as relevant today as it was when first published, distils the visual language of architecture into its core classical elements, and illustrates that building throughout the ages express an awareness of the grammar of style and its rules even if they vary, break or poetically contradict them. From the original edifices of Greece and Rome to the recapitulations and innovations of the Renaissance; the explosive rhetoric of the Baroque to the grave statements of Neo-classicism; and finally, the exuberant eclecticism of the Victorians and Edwardians to the 'stripped Neo-classicism' of some of the moderns; Summerson explains how every period has employed classical language to make their statement. With a new introduction by academic and architectural historian Alan Powers, this introduction continues to be one of the defining texts on the subject and is essential reading for all students of architecture.

The Classical Language of Architecture

Susan Mohl Powers

Conversations with Birds

Birdtalk

Living With Books

Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) is now firmly one of the most popular artists of his period. "Eric Ravilious: Imagined Realities" includes illustrations of many previously unpublished paintings, including a number from private collections, as well as surveying his other artistic activities. The text draws on many letters and other documents, again previously unpublished, and is the most comprehensive account of Revilious' career ever published. It also attempts to position Ravilious in relation to English art of his time, and more recent critical and cultural issues.

Imagined Realities

Eric Ravilious

Out of the Ordinary is a detailed account of current work by Pollard Thomas Edwards architects (PTEa), accompanied by an overview of the career of this prominent practice. Innovators in both design and business strategies, PTEa have been pioneers of urban property development since they were established in the 1970s, and their radical methodologies continue to influence contemporary architecture, even as they continue to evolve. PTEa's innovations have now become absorbed into standard urban design practice; this book shows how they continue to build upon their own radical approach in their most recent projects, including the development at City Road Basin, which houses their own offices among new mixed-use buildings and public gardens. PTEa's work, in its emphasis upon context and the accommodation of the new within the old, is doubly 'out of the ordinary'; by emerging from and working within 'ordinary', existing structures, they are a truly extraordinary practice.

Pollard Thomas Edwards Architects

Out of the Ordinary

Sandra Lousada

Ioana Marinescu

Robin Hood Gardens in Tower Hamlets, East London, was designed by Alison + Peter Smithson and completed in 1972. In 2008, this large social housing scheme was threatened with demolition and became a controversial conservation case. The government refused to give it protection as a historic building despite widespread public support for its retention. This book uncovers the history of the project, arguing for its historical and architectural significance and for its future role in local housing provision. It includes contributions by architects Richard Rogers and Zaha Hadid, with previously unpublished text and pictures by Alison + Peter Smithson and photographs by Sandra Lousada and Ioana Marinescu. The contributors include Catherine Croft, Alan Powers, Dirk van den Heuvel, Ken Baker, Simon Smithson, Amanda Baillieu, Zaha Hadid, Sir Stuart Lipton, Peter St John, Neil Jackson, Deborah Saunt, Richard Rogers, Ann Power, and Dan Cruickshank.

Robin Hood Gardens Re-visions

Thoroughly illustrated with images of the buildings under discussion, advertisements, and other historical photographs, Britain is an authoritative, yet highly accessible, account of twentieth-century British architecture.

Britain

ELAIN. POWERS HARWOOD (ALAN.)

ErnőGoldfinger (1902-87) is one of the most celebrated modern architects to work inBritain in the twentieth century. Born in Hungary and trained in Paris,he was subject to influences that he synthesised in his work: the craft ofproducing fine concrete with classical refinement of composition from histeacher Auguste Perret, the drama of scale from the work of Le Corbusier, andfrom Adolf Loos, a special sensitivity in handling interior space andrespecting local character. Goldfinger's career among the great names of modernart and architecture in Paris was diverted when he married the artist UrsulaBlackwell and settled in London in 1934, designing furniture, shop interiorsand a few houses up to 1939. In his career after 1945, Goldfinger broughta distinctive European sophistication to the architecture of his adoptedculture, but while respected by fellow architects and elected to membership ofthe Royal Academy, he remained an outsider in English Modernism. Onlywhen in 1996 the National Trust opened his own pre-war home in Hampstead withits fine collection of abstract and surrealist art, and his dramatic lateresidential slab blocks, Balfron and Trellick towers became part of a cult ofBrutalism, did his star begin to rise. He now enjoys a fame never enjoyedduring his lifetime. Written bytwo leading experts of mid-century architecture, this is the first detailedsurvey of the full range of Goldfinger's work. It is stunningly illustrated bynew photography as well as images and plans from Goldfinger's own extensivearchive.

Ernő Goldfinger

Describes the distinctive ideology of the Aldington, Craig and Collinge architectural practice through their built and unbuilt projects, and positions their practice against the shifting background of modernism in Britain.

Twentieth Century Architects

Aldington, Craig and Collinge

Stephen Calloway

Elizabeth C. Cromley

A new edition of the in-depth chronological survey of the key styles of architectural design in the United Kingdom and United States over the past five hundred years offers a fully revised chapter on the postwar to the Post-Modernist period (1950-75) anda new chapter on contemporary style.

An Encyclopedia of Domestic Architectural Detail

The Elements of Style

You can't judge a book by its cover...but some covers simply speak for themselves. The most influential book jacket designs from throughout the 20th century are on display, and the fascinating images track their evolution from throwaway utilitarian "dust jackets" into a powerful modern art form. Three hundred hardcover and paperback book jackets appear in full color, including many from rare first editions seldom seen outside a serious collector's library. Accompanying analysis commemorates the contributions of top European and American artists like Victor Gollancz, Paul Rand, and Barnett Freedman; explains how cover art styles helped launch such publishing brands as Penguin and Bloomsbury; and explores the impact of today's digitally designed covers.

Great Book Jackets and Cover Design

Front Cover

Andy Friend

In recent years Eric Ravilious has become recognized as one of the most important British artists of the 20th century, whose watercolours and wood engravings capture an essential sense of place and the spirit of mid-century England. What is less appreciated is that he did not work in isolation, but within a much wider network of artists, friends and lovers influenced by Paul Nashs teaching at the Royal College of Art Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Enid Marx, Tirzah Garwood, Percy Horton, Peggy Angus and Helen Binyon among them. The Ravilious group bridged the gap between fine art and design, and the gentle, locally rooted but spritely character of their work came to be seen as the epitome of contemporary British values. Seventy-five years after Raviliouss untimely death, Andy Friend tells the story of this group of artists from their student days through to the Second World War. Ravilious & Co. explores how they influenced each other and how a shared experience animated their work, revealing the significance in this pattern of friendship of women artists, whose place within the history of British art has often been neglected. Generously illustrated and drawing on extensive research, and a wealth of newly discovered material, Ravilious & Co. is an enthralling narrative of creative achievement, joy and tragedy.

Alan Powers

Books

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