Gottfried Semper and the Problem of Historicism.
Cambridge University Press, 2004. First edition. Hardcover. 25.5 x 18 cm. Royal octavo. 274pp. Bibliography, index. Green cloth in dust jacket. Light toning to jacket flaps. Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. Item #67973
ISBN: 0521821630
From the jacket flap: "Using key texts by the German architect and theorist Gottfried Semper, Mari Hvattum offers a reinterpretation of historicism, which is here viewed both as a philosophical outlook and as an architectural problem. Hvattum focuses on Semper's two major concerns: his sensitive understanding of the ontological significance of art and architecture and his ambitious rendering of art and architecture as the objects of scientific investigation and prediction. Hvattum investigates the background and implications of these conflicting concerns. By examining the historicist fusion of Romanticism and Positivism, the book seeks to understand the nature as well as the limits of the modern dream of an architectural "method of inventing." More than an intellectual biography, Gottfried Semper and the Problem of Historicism explores the continuous influence of historicism on modern architectural discourse and practice. "
Price: $200.00