Critiquing the Modern in Architecture

Written over four decades, Critiquing the Modern in Architecture is a collection of essays exploring the ideological and metaphysical core of modern architecture. Author Jaimini Mehta moves architectural modernism from its primarily Eurocentric definition, interrogating the subject from the perspective on a non-western thought-world. Mehta groups his essays under three key themes: "Rethinking Modernity" explores the ideological underpinnings of the modernity/modernism binary; "The Idea of Architecture" looks at a number of issues that constitute the timeless and the invariable aspects of architecture against which the prevalent modernist discourse can be critically evaluated; and "On Praxis" looks at three contemporary architects' work and the Vienna Secessionist movement between 1890 and 1918 to articulate a critique of the underpinnings of the modern movement. Providing a new view of the modern in architecture, this book is critical reading for architectural theorists and scholars of modernism.

Jaimini Mehta

Acknowledgements, Introduction: The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Architecture Part One: Rethinking modernity 1. Towards a Purposeful Disequilibrium 2. A Fool's Paradise: A Critical Evaluation of the Sources of Post-Modern Architecture 3. Interrogative Scholarship: Theorizing the Agenda for Post-Rational Architecture 4. Contingent Criticality Part Two: The Idea of Architecture 5. Architecture and the Idea of Agreement 6. The Space of Mr. Giedion 7. Architecture as Co-Making 8. Vaastu and the Enfolding Order Part Three: On Praxis 9. Le Corbusier: Polemical, Poetical and Existential 10. Analogues of Architecture 11. Romaldo Giurgola: The Reluctant Master 12. The Vienna Spring Bibliography, Illustration Credits, Index