History lesson: Colin Davies readdresses the architectural canon

There’s a new authority on the history of architecture: Laurence King Publishing has released A New History of Modern Architecture by Colin Davies, architect and former editor of The Architects’ Journal, a hefty yet accessible tome that readdresses the canon of 20th- and 21st-century architecture. Visual and approachable, with 800 illustrations, the book corrects the fetishisation of European Modernism and reapportions credit elsewhere across the globe with chapters on the American skyscraper and Chinese modern architecture amongst other international styles and forms.

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By Harriet Thorpe
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Church of Colònia Güell, Barcelona, Spain designed by Antoni Gaudí

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The National Assembly Building of Bangladesh by Louis Kahn

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Philip Johnson's AT&T building in Manhattan

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Sydney Opera House by Danish architect Jørn Utzon

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Inside Tampere Cathedral by Lans Sonck

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Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh in India

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Exterior of the Shaanxi History Museum in Xi’an by Zhang Jinqiu

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Zaha Hadid's BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany

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Fallingwater in Pennsylvania by Frank Lloyd Wright

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Halawa House in Agamy by Egyptian architect Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil

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Teatro del Mondo in Venice

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Fred and Ginger building or ‘Dancing House’ by Frank Gehry in Prague

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Jin Mao Tower designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill and Shanghai World Financial Center designed by Kohn Pederson Fox

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Guangzhou Opera House by Zaha Hadid

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Rem Koolhaas and OMA’s CCTV building in Beijing

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Yokohama International Ferry Terminal by Foreign Office Architects

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National Grand Theatre in Beijing by architect Paul Andreu

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Harriet Thorpe

Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.

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