Experiments with Life Itself
13/01/2013.
By Actar. Radical domestic architectures of the 1940s and 1950s Francisco González de Canales
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
Francisco Gonzalez de Canales began researching Pablo Neruda's houses, published an assays, few years ago. A broader idea has finished crystallizing in a book, with the research about houses of Germán Rodríguez Arias, Ralph Erskine, Charles and Ray Eames, Juan O’Gorman and Alison & Peter Smithson, a book you can not miss!
Every book relating the history of modern architecture features a large number of pages dedicated to avant-garde designs and the formation of the modern movement in the interwar years, and a similar number devoted to reconstruction and expansion after the Second World War. Meanwhile, as if owing to lack of understanding or convenient silence, there is void of dark years, of wars, exile and misfortune about which little can be said. However, it was in these dark times, as in so many other revealing moments in the history of culture, that experimental and profoundly invigorating experiences were taking place. Architects and artists voluntarily or forcibly driven to the margins of social importance began to react to a culturally unsustainable situation of which we know very little even today. Francisco González de Canales studies a series of unrelated cases from the late 1930s to the late 1950s that he refers to as domestic self-experimentation: Germán Rodríguez Arias, Ralph Erskine, Charles and Ray Eames, Juan O’Gorman and Alison & Peter Smithson.
Language / ISBN:
English [978-84-92861-65-1] Available
Spanish [978-84-92861-66-8] Available
Cover: Soft cover
Ilustrationes: color and b/w images
Size: 15 x 21 cm.
Number of pages: 152 pages
Published: ACTAR
Price: 25 € / 34.95 USD / 22.00 GBP
Francisco González de Canales Ruiz. B.Arch ETSASevilla, Dip. Arch ETSABarcelona, M.A GSD Harvard Univ., PhD ETSASevilla + Harvard GSD.
Francisco studied architecture at ESTA Seville and ETSA Barcelona. He is professor in the University of Seville and the Architectural Association (HTS and Design Unit). An active architectural critic, he has previously lectured in England, México, Spain, and the USA, collaborated in different architectural publications and curated various exhibitions at the Architectural Association as AACP coordinator (AA curatorial practices/cultural products, 2008-2012), and other travelling exhibitions for Spanish institutions such as Rafael Moneo: A theoretical Reflection through practice. He has previously researched in the Architectural Association, Catholic University of Chile, UNAM in Mexico and Harvard University under different scholarships and grants. Among his recent books are Experiment with life itself (commended by the CICA award 2013), First Works (with B. Steele) and Rafael Moneo. Building, Teaching, Writing (with N. Ray). He collaborated with Foster + Partners, Carlos Ferrater and Rafael Moneo before co-founding Canales & Lombardero.