When Buildings Speak
Architecture as Language in the Habsburg Empire and Its Aftermath, 1867-1933
300 pages
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158 color plates, 52 halftones
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8-1/2 x 11
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© 2006
In When Buildings Speak, Anthony Alofsin explores the rich yet often overlooked architecture of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire and its successor states. He shows that several different styles emerged in this milieu during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moreover, he contends that each of these styles communicates to us in a manner resembling language and its particular means of expression.
Covering a wide range of buildings—from national theaters to crematoria, apartment buildings to warehouses, and sanatoria to postal savings banks—Alofsin proposes a new way of interpreting this language. He calls on viewers to read buildings in two ways: through their formal elements and through their political, social, and cultural contexts. By looking through Alofsin’s eyes, readers can see how myriad nations sought to express their autonomy by tapping into the limitless possibilities of art and architectural styles. And such architecture can still speak very powerfully to us today about the contradictory issues affecting parts of the former Habsburg Empire.
“The book itself as a production is spectacular.”—David Dunster, Architectural Review
“The book itself as a production is spectacular.”—David Dunster, Architectural Review
South East Society of Architectural Hist: Southeast Society of Architectural Historians Award
Honorable Mention
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts: Vasari Award
Won
“When Buildings Speak is the most searching historical and theoretical examination of the language of architecture to appear in modern memory. Alofsin eloquently and originally analyzes not just the singular architectural expressions of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire; he provides the necessary key concepts through which to read, interpret, and ultimately to comprehend the language of seeing, describing, and thinking about buildings today.”—Steven Mansbach, University of Maryland
“Anthony Alofsin’s splendid work will establish itself as an indispensable survey of a complex field. Combining novel and sophisticated analysis with great attention to detail, it will be of great interest to scholars of modern architecture and modern European history. Indeed, with its comprehensive overview of a wide variety of national styles, it will be an excellent introduction to the architectural wonders awaiting anyone traveling to the cities of Central Europe.”—Peter Jelavich, Johns Hopkins University
“When Buildings Speak introduces a number of buildings that have thus far had no place in canonical accounts. It offers a range of clever observations and fresh interpretations, and thus expands the resonating space of our ideas about architecture.”--Jindrich Vybiral, Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design, Prague
“A compelling demonstration of the value of the Central European contribution to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century architecture, Alofsin’s exposition also adds to the continuing rediscovery of a related phenomenon: the complexity of national and cultural ‘identity’ in Central Europe, not least after 1918 and the disintegration of Austria-Hungary. Greatly enriched through specially commissioned new color photography, the volume is both an accessible introduction for the general reader and a stimulating addition to recommended reading for the student.”--Elizabeth Clegg, author of Art, Design, and Architecture in Central Europe, 1890–1920
"Mr. Alofsin says that the cold war left much of the 'extraordinary, creative modern architecture' created in the breakup of the Hapsburg Empire relatively unknown to Western scholars. Thus his book wanders widely in those territories — from the northern fringe of Hapsburg hegemony (in today's Poland) far south into the empire's Balkan domains. Along the way, he scans official buildings, churches, and cemeteries for what he calls 'the interplay between personal and national identity.' In the process, he also links these often-ignored buildings to better-known structures such as the Rathaus and the Secession Building in Vienna."—David Dunster, Chronicle of Higher Education
"The book itself as a production is spectacular."—David Dunster, Architectural Review
Vasari Award from the Dallas Museum of Art in 2007
"While certainly contributing to the continuing shifts in the historiography of modern architecture, this book will also open pathways to the study of even more 'adventurous' territories that have yet to be considered by mainstream architectural history."—Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Issues of Architecture, Language, and Identity
1. The Language of History
2. The Language of Organicism
3. The Language of Rationalism
4. The Language of Myth
5. The Language of Hybridity
Conclusion
Continuities, Discontinuities, and Transformations
Appendix: Place-Names, Educational Institutions, Translation of Secession
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
Introduction
Issues of Architecture, Language, and Identity
1. The Language of History
2. The Language of Organicism
3. The Language of Rationalism
4. The Language of Myth
5. The Language of Hybridity
Conclusion
Continuities, Discontinuities, and Transformations
Appendix: Place-Names, Educational Institutions, Translation of Secession
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
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Architecture: European Architecture
History: European History
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