Shaping the Great City: Modern Architecture in Central Europe, 1890-1937
Munich: Prestel Verlag, 1999. English. Softcover. Brownish gray illustrated wraps. 272 pp. Color and bw illustrations. VG (Corner of back cover may be bent; covers may have slight scuffs, page edges may be tanning lightly; otherwise clean.). Item #132172
ISBN: 379132358X
A collection of essays that explores the 19th-century architectural history of cities in the former Habsburg region. These include Budapest, Prague, Vienna, Zagreb, L'viv, Krakow, and Timisoara, among others. "As administrative hubs of empire, they had translocal, even transnational, significance. To build in them, therefore, was not only to shape spaces of modern urban life but also to engage the history of their imbricated fabric; it was to enter into debate with and question the authority of the forces that had formed them. This book proposes that it was in the lived cities of the region that the conflicting aspirations of empire and people and the intersecting of urban modernization and national autonomy gave shape to a modern architectural culture, one that was deeply rooted in place and in a conception of the great city as a protagonist in the making of history." (back cover).
Price: $29.97