Sigfried Giedion: Space, Time and Architecture (1941–)

“A milestone in modern thought, Space, Time and Architecture has been reissued many times since its first publication in 1941 and translated into half a dozen languages. It is a pioneering and influential standard history giving in integrated synthesis the background and cultural context of modern architecture and urban planning, set in their manifold cultural relationships “with other human activities and the similarity of methods that are in use today in architecture, construction, painting, city planning and science.”

The book had its genesis in the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University in the spring of 1938, and it was recognized from the outset as a series of related essays on seminal topics in the organization of human spaces, obtaining fresh insights, not from a panoramic survey, “but by isolating and examining certain specific events intensively, penetrating and exploring them in the manner of the close-up” as Giedion outlined his method.” (Wikipedia)

First published in 1941
Third edition, enlarged, 1954
Fifth edition, revised and enlarged, 2009
Publisher Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
778 pages (3rd ed.)

Reviews: Ben Ray Redman (The Saturday Review, 1954), Arthur P. Molella (Technology and Culture, 2002), Sarah Bay Williams (The Art Book Review, 2013).

Publisher (5th ed.)

PDF (3rd ed., 173 MB, updated on 2017-1-2)
PDF (5th ed., 429 MB, added on 2021-7-12)

Wolf Vostell, Dick Higgins (eds.): Fantastic Architecture (1971)

Published by Dick Higgins’ own seminal Something Else Press, Fantastic Architecture is an adaptation of the German book Pop Architektur (Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1969) and features artists involved in Fluxus, pop and conceptual art movements addressing the field of architecture through collages, captions and mini-manifestos.

With works by Gerhard Rühm, Claes Oldenburg, Raoul Hausmann, Kurt Schwitters, Erich Buchholz, John Cage, Wolf Vostell, Richard Hamilton, Hans Hollein, Pol Bury, Stefan Wewerka, Dick Higgins, Addi Koepcke, Bici Hendricks, Geoffrey Hendricks, Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Beuys, Milan Knížák, Dennis Oppenheim, Franz Mon, Carolee Schneemann, Ben Vautier, Robert Filliou, Diter Rot, Ay-o, Francis Starr, Alison Knowles, Philip Corner, Douglas Huebler, Michael Heizer, Jan Dibbets, K.H. Hoedicke, Jan Jacob Herman, Buckminster Fuller, Jean Tinguely and Daniel Spoerri.

Texts from German translated by Joachim Neugroschel
Publisher Something Else Press, New York, 1971
ISBN 0871100894, 9780871100894

Reprint (Primary Information, 2015, added 2015-8-18)

PDF (49 MB)

Le Corbusier: Complete Works in 8 Volumes (1930-70) [French/English/German]

Published between 1930 and 1970, in close collaboration with Le Corbusier himself the eight volumes comprise a comprehensive record of the buildings, projects, sketchbooks, manifestos, drawings, and texts of one of the 20th century’s most influential architect.

Volumes 1-2, 4-7 edited by Willy Boesiger; Volume 1 co-edited by Oscar Stonorov, Volume 3 edited by Max Bill
Publisher: Les Éditions d’Architecture, Zurich, 1930-1970
1708 pages
via STBGD

Reprint

PDFs (removed on 2017-10-9 upon request of the Fondation Le Corbusier)