The Familiar and the Unfamiliar in Twentieth-Century Architecture

This ambitious study uses the concept of the familiar and the avant-garde practice of defamiliarization to reexamine some of the most important buildings of the twentieth century. The Familiar and the Unfamiliar in Twentieth-Century Architecture examines the work--written and built--of four seminal twentieth-century architects and firms: Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Aldo Rossi, and the partnership of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. In approaching the history of twentieth-century Western architecture from the perspective of the architectural subject--the person architects imagine experiencing their work--Jean La Marche reveals new insights into the ways humans are imagined in relation to architecture.