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: "e;Rethinking Modernity"e; explores the ideological underpinnings of the modernity/modernism binary; "e;The Idea of Architecture"e; 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 "e;On Praxis"e; 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.