Reyner Banham: Theory and Design in the First Machine Age, 2nd ed. (1960/1967)

First published in 1960, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age has become required reading in numerous courses on the history of modern architecture and is widely regarded as one of the definitive books on the modern movement. It has influenced a generation of students and critics interested in the formation of attitudes, themes, and forms which were characteristic of artists and architects working primarily in Europe between 1900 and 1930 under the compulsion of new technological developments in the first machine age.

Publisher Praeger, New York and Washington, 1960
Second edition, 1967; Second printing, 1970
338 pages

Review (Robert Gardner-Medwin, The Town Planning Review, 1961)
Review (Dennis Young)
Review (Caroline S. Lebar, 2012)
Review (of the 2009 French edition, Hugues Fontenas, Critique d’art, 2010, in French)
Commentary (Gillian Naylor, Journal of Design History, 1997)
Commentary (Nigel Whiteley, 2005)

PDF (50 MB, no OCR)

Siegfried Giedion: Mechanization Takes Command (1948)

“First published in 1948, Mechanization Takes Command is an examination of mechanization and its effects on everyday life. A monumental figure in the field of architectural history, Siegfried Giedion traces the evolution and resulting philosophical implications of such disparate innovations as the slaughterhouse, the Yale lock, the assembly line, tractors, ovens, and “comfort” as defined by advancements in furniture design. A groundbreaking text when originally published, Giedion’s pioneering work remains an important contribution to architecture, philosophy, and technology studies.”

Publisher Oxford University Press, New York, 1948
Third printing, 1970
743 pages
via babyalanturing

Reviews: John E. Sawyer (The Journal of Economic History, 1949), Harry Elmer Barnes (American Journal of Sociology, 1949), William F. Ogburn (The American Historical Review, 1948), Henry Guerlac (American Quarterly, 1949), Donald Horton (American Sociological Review, 1948), Paul Zucker (The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 1949), Arthur P. Molella (Technology and Culture, 2002), Tom Vanderbilt (Bookforum, 2010), Bryan E. Norwood (Culture Machine, 2015).

PDF (removed on 2014-4-21 upon request of the University of Minnesota Press)

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)