Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Considering the synthesis of modernity and tradition in contemporary architecture, this book focuses on 37 buildings completed in the 1990s. It examines a broad range of examples of international architecture that reinterprets rather than revives traditional forms, materials and construction techniques. The projects covered in this study range from better-known works by renowned architects such as Michael Graves, Renzo Piano and David Chipperfield, to less familiar buildings in Hungary, Nepal, Latvia and elsewhere.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This book proves that good, old-fashioned modern architecture is alive and well, living in our new millennium and featuring splintered sections, complex elevations, slanted walls, angular roofs, imaginative lighting, indigenous materials, etc. Modern architecture has survived the onslaught of postmodernism in several forms. Cubism is the paramount style here, aided and abetted by Sustainability, 1950s Retro, High Tech, and even a new pragmatism. Primarily a picture book, this volume catalogs and documents the distribution of the modern Cubist industrial architecture throughout the globe in terms of six themes: tradition, technology, landscape, regionalism, civics, and identity. Richardson is a prize-winning writer, the deputy editor of the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the coauthor of In Defense of Domes. Very focused in its purview, this book is aimed at the professional design community. Recommended for architecture libraries only. Peter Kaufman, Boston Architectural Ctr. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Architectural writer and editor Richardson focuses on 37 international examples of buildings of different types completed in the last decade. She examines architecture that reinterprets rather than revives traditional forms, materials, and construction techniques. Each project features a thoroughly researched and detailed commentary, and is generously illustrated with photographs, sketches, and plans. In fact, there are 240 pages with at least 300 illustrations, 175 in color, generously supplemented with some very good photographs and architectural line drawings (site plans, floor plans, sections, and details). Richardson is deputy editor of RIBA Journal and a regular contributor to a number of publications, including Bauwelt and World Architecture. She has a degree in architecture from the University of Westminster, London. Recommended for all levels of readers, but would probably be more valuable to historians who relish the insight into decisions made during the design process and the notoriety of local influences. All levels. R. P. Meden Marymount University