Wells
Coates / Elizabeth Darling.
RIBA, London : 2012
162 p. : il. col. y n.
Colección: Twentieth Century Architects
ISBN 9781859464373
Materias:
Biblioteca Sbc Aprendizaje A-72 COATES WEL
The architect-engineer Wells Wintemute Coates (1895-1958)
numbers amongst the most significant figures in the history of 20th-century
British architecture. Through projects such as the Lawn Road Flats of 1934; the
Sunspan Houses of the mid-1930s; Embassy Court Flats 1936; Palace Gate Flats,
1939 and the Telekinema for the Festival of Britain, 1951, he is recognised as
one of those who brought about the introduction and development of
architectural modernism in the UK. His reputation in this respect has increased
in the past decade: Coates's work for Isokon was featured in the 1999 'Modern
Britain' exhibition at the Design Museum, while, more recently, the restoration
of Lawn Road and Embassy Court has brought his work to the attention of a new
audience. Despite this reputation and recognition, there is little published
work on Wells Coates and only the biography-memoir (1999) by his daughter Laura
Cohn remains in print. This is a valuable study but is ultimately personal
rather than architectural in its analysis. The (out of print) monograph by
Cantacuzino (1978), whilst it provides scholars with a solid and informative
account of Coates' life, and a near-complete Catalogue Raisonee, is now rather
dated in its approach. It is, therefore, an appropriate moment for a new study
of this significant figure to be published. Its primary concern will be to re-introduce
Coates to a modern audience, presenting a thorough account of his oeuvre and
the context in which it was created. It will show how Coates, as a designer of
products, interiors and buildings, developed a new formal and spatial language
of design which worked to shape and influence the path British modernism would
take both during the 1930s and after the war.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario