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This book is about the role played by architects, engineers and planners in transforming France during the three post-war decades of growing prosperity, a period when modernisation was a central priority of the state, promising a way forward from the shame of defeat in 1940 to a place at the centre of the new Europe.
List of contents
Preface Abbreviations Introduction: Architecture, Urbanism and the Trente Glorieuses Part 1: Modernisation Takes Command: From Austerity to Affluence 1. Reconstruction 1945–56: rebuilding or modernisation? 2. Industrialising the building industry 3. The grands ensembles and the modernisation of housing, 1953–62 4. Modern France at home: shaping the new domestic ideal, 1953–63 5. Public architecture of the 1950s: towards a new architecture for state and industry 6. ‘15,000 hectares to reconquer’: the struggle to modernise Paris, 1955–65 7. Modernising the Paris region: from the SDAU to the New Towns, 1965–75 Part 2: Opposing Modernisation: From Resistance to Revolt 8. Modernism versus modernisation: the Unité d’habitation at Marseille 9. Radicals and opposition to the modern city in the 1960s 10. Revolt and the search for new directions, 1968–73 Epilogue: 1975, France transformed Image Credits Index
About the author
Nicholas Bullock, a Fellow of King’s College, was Professor of the History of Architecture and Urbanism of the 20th Century in the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, and lectured at the Architectural Association in London for over 40 years. Originally admitted for modern languages, he read architecture at Cambridge and completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Sir Leslie Martin. He was a founder member of the Martin Centre for Architecture and Urban Studies, established in 1967. He has published widely on the architecture, housing and planning issues of the 20th century in Britain, Germany and France.
Summary
This book is about the role played by architects, engineers and planners in transforming France during the three post-war decades of growing prosperity, a period when modernisation was a central priority of the state, promising a way forward from the shame of defeat in 1940 to a place at the centre of the new Europe.
