Andrew Peckham

Torsten Schmiedeknecht

Charles Rattray

Modern European architecture has been characterised by a strong undercurrent of rationalist thought. Rationalist Traces aims to examine this legacy by establishing a cross-section of contemporary European architecture, placed in selected national contexts by critics including Ákos Moravánszky and Josep Maria Montaner. Subsequent interviews discuss the theoretical contributions of Giorgio Grassi and OM Ungers, and a survey of Max Dudler and De Architekten Cie.’s work sets out a consistency at one remove from avant-garde spectacle or everyday expediency. In Germany Rationalism offers a considered representation of state institutions, while elsewhere outstanding work reveals different approaches to rationality in architecture often recalling canonical Modernism or the ‘Rational Architecture’ of the later postwar period. Whether evident in patterns of thinking, a particular formal repertoire, a prevailing consistency or exemplified in individual buildings, this relationship informs the mature work of Patrick Berger, Claus en Kaan Architecten, Carlos Ferrater, Cino Zucchi or Hans Kollhoff. The buildings and projects of a younger generation – Javier García Solera, GWJ Architekten AG, biq, Andrea Bassi or Beniamino Servino – present a Rationalism less conditioned by a concern to promote a unifying aesthetic. While often sharing a deliberate economy of means, or a sensual sobriety, they present a more oblique or distanced relationship with the defining work of the 20th century.

Rationalist Traces

James Madge

This anthology brings together the best and most interesting papers from the first ten years of The Journal of Architecture, published together for the first time in a single volume. Covering a wide range of topics of central importance to architecture today, the papers also address the related topics to which architecture and architectural studies are inextricably linked. The invited authors draw on sociology, philosophy, cultural studies and the sciences to round out the collection and highlight the breadth and vitality of modern architectural studies, offering perspectives from different disciplines as well as different corners of the globe.

Andrew Peckham

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