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9th out of 76 books
—
21 voters
From Bauhaus to Our House
by
Tom Wolfe
Walter Groppius, granddaddy of steel and glass, conceived his architectural vision in the rubble of WW I and the decadence of Weimar in the decade after.
His doctrine found fertile soil in America, where it was time to adopt a clearly defined and suitable representative architecture.
Tom Wolfe, author of THE PAINTED WORD and THE RIGHT STUFF, treats us to a chronicle of the t
...moreMass Market Paperback, 128 pages
Published
December 1st 1982
by Pocket Books
(first published 1981)
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Jan 16, 2009
James
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
architecture,
study-group
Tom Wolfe's short work, From Bauhaus to Our House, is little more than a screed against the excesses of modern architecture. While agreeing with many of his conclusions, I found the style and tone of the book to be inappropriate for the purpose of serious art/architecture criticism. Written in 1981, it seems dated with a quarter century of architectural progress having occurred since it was published. There are references to other art forms, music in particular, that demonstrate an unfamiliarity...more
Wolfe likes exuberance. He doesn't like restraint and purity. So he criticizes early and mid-century modern architecture and applauds those who resisted the glass box in favor of expressive and exuberant designs--like Eero Saarinen. Wolfe's most interesting claim is that the motivation for architectural modernism was despair after the first world war and the desire to create a new society from scratch, since the old one had been destroyed. But that rationale made no sense in America, which was u...more
1 like · like · see review
Jul 27, 2012
Steve
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
art-culture,
books-of-2012
The Bauhaus school stripped away all tradition in the name Socialism, creating the Modernist schools and mass housing for the prols. Many of our council/ public housing horrors can laid at Bauhaus's door- howling and moaning. The blocks of glass and steel, the grey and white furnishings and interiors that we inhabit as workplaces, we can thank them for these as well.
This is Tom Wolfe, biting, sarcastic and cutting through to the core.
This is Tom Wolfe, biting, sarcastic and cutting through to the core.
I just finished reading Herdeg’s The Decorated Diagram of 1983 simultaneously with Tom Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House of 1981 – a combination, though unplanned, has proved a very fruitful pairing. The latter is a charming and witty anti-intellectual critique of modern architecture’s banal and sterile qualities and the devastation it has wrought on American cities and landscape. Seeing through the naive stylistic labels of Wolfe, Herdeg lays the blame of the above aforementioned problems, not...more
The number of educated Americans for whom this book constitutes all that they know about architecture must be remarkably high. Probably second only to the Fountainhead, really, and comparing the two, Bauhaus is of course superior as a guide to architecture. And it is written by a brilliant prose stylist, Wolfe, capable of wry comments and asides and intellectual flourishes that make page turning a pleasure.
However, there is a cloying constant attack on the politics of the architects that Wolfe d...more
However, there is a cloying constant attack on the politics of the architects that Wolfe d...more
Dec 31, 2011
Sarah
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
i-quit-that-job-and-read-this-book
Wolfe writes an interesting, hilarious, and opinionated account of how we ended up with all Those Buildings, i.e. those concrete boxes that look like factories that everyone understands are "art" but secretly thinks are really ugly. My architecture knowledge is pretty much limited to recognizing that architects design bafflingly expensive, utilitarian chairs (how bourgeois of me!) and that "Eero" and "Saarinen" are frequent answers to New York Times crossword puzzle clues. As a lay person, I enj...more
3 likes · like · see review
Does NOTHING satisfy you, sir??
Things that offend Wolfe: architects that aren't simply sketchers for the design ideas of their wealthy clients; new ideas; change. Yes, some of the artists and architects of the early 20th century were pretentious blowhards. Some of what was avant garde was also impractical. There is a way to critique this without throwing it all away. Why categorically dismiss the simplicity of modern design in favor of the same old quoins and trim and ornamentation?
As it is, W...more
Things that offend Wolfe: architects that aren't simply sketchers for the design ideas of their wealthy clients; new ideas; change. Yes, some of the artists and architects of the early 20th century were pretentious blowhards. Some of what was avant garde was also impractical. There is a way to critique this without throwing it all away. Why categorically dismiss the simplicity of modern design in favor of the same old quoins and trim and ornamentation?
As it is, W...more
Tom Wolfe is cranky. And he is cranky because all the buildings going up around him make no sense, are ugly, and especially because these ugly buildings are being embraced by academics and everyone. At least, that's what Wolfe argues in From Bauhaus to Our House, his critique of the modern school of architecture.
While I can get behind much of criticisms (the architects respected in academia often could count the number of their buildings actually constructed on their fingers, that the "glass box...more
While I can get behind much of criticisms (the architects respected in academia often could count the number of their buildings actually constructed on their fingers, that the "glass box...more
Wolfe gets a bit wobbly at times, wanting American architecture to reflect the big bad boldness of the American capitalist spirit, not the lean limp-wristed socialism of western Europe. The essential flaw in his argument is his failure to see Bauhaus style in anything but political terms. He never evaluates whether functional, minimalist architecture can also have intrinsic aesthetic value, and whether that aesthetic has an appropriate place in the history of architecture. The chapter on Edward...more
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For a very long time this book has been one of my all-time TOP favorite books I have ever read...and I have consumed 1000's, ha! When Tom Wolfe wants to be, he can be an extremely excellent Writer. He's very intelligent & has a great wit.
This book is pretty much about Bauhaus Architecture. You know, the "white cubes" from the 1920's & 30's. He covers the lives of the many Architects in that gendre, especially Walter Gropius, the founder of the movement. The thing that's great about this...more
This book is pretty much about Bauhaus Architecture. You know, the "white cubes" from the 1920's & 30's. He covers the lives of the many Architects in that gendre, especially Walter Gropius, the founder of the movement. The thing that's great about this...more
From Bauhaus to Our House traces the journey of the modernist architecture movement from 1920s Europe to 1980s United States. Tom Wolfe treats what might otherwise be a dry, uninteresting subject with a heaping of humor.
He states his thesis in the first sentence of the first page, "O beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, has there ever been another place on earth where so many people of wealth and power have paid for and put up with so much architecture they detested as within...more
He states his thesis in the first sentence of the first page, "O beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, has there ever been another place on earth where so many people of wealth and power have paid for and put up with so much architecture they detested as within...more
Nearly thirty years ago, Tom Wolfe put the architectural world in a tizzy when he published this essay attacking modern architecture.
Now, I'm not a big fan of glass & steel & concrete office buildings, but Wolfe is absolutely virulent on the subject. And therein lies the rub. He detests Bauhaus-inspired work so much that he has no perspective. He is guilty of the same pretentiousness and arrogance of which he accuses the architects whom he dislikes.
There is a great deal to be said agains...more
Now, I'm not a big fan of glass & steel & concrete office buildings, but Wolfe is absolutely virulent on the subject. And therein lies the rub. He detests Bauhaus-inspired work so much that he has no perspective. He is guilty of the same pretentiousness and arrogance of which he accuses the architects whom he dislikes.
There is a great deal to be said agains...more
I certainly wouldn't describe this book as "delightful" for anything but an undisciplined reader. Wolfe dismantles the entirety of modern architectural history, only to leave us with a post-modernism that he views as insufficient. While this is indubitably a beginner's book and therefore has significant omissions, one can't help but recognize that Wolfe's logic is sound even when he's attacking the most universally beloved architects of the twentieth century (Le Corbusier, Mies, and especially G...more
Feb 07, 2010
Adam Kranz
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
No one
Recommended to Adam by:
Will Klein
Shelves:
non-fiction
I was given this book to make me aware of architecture. And it may well have achieved that, for a little while. But it was simply an unpleasant experience to read the book. Wolfe writes a 128 page social history of modern architecture that is unrelentingly, bitingly spiteful and negative. He details all of their failings, and gives in-depth accounts of their sophistries and petty ideological squabbles-supposedly for the justified end of mocking them, but I merely found it tiresome. I know t...mo...more
I'm not really sure what I thought of this book. I like Tom Wolfe and I like 20th century American Architecture; but I didn't love this book. Maybe it was smug... Architectural analysis can sometimes disappear up its own post-modernism behind - and I wonder if this was the problem. It certainly made me google many of the buildings that he talked about.... but it seemed that every Architect Wolfe mentioned started off as the next saviour of their movement - but turned along his way into parody. A...more
This is not a long book, but Wolf manages to give the reader a glimpse of the historical events that paved the way for the birth of "modern" architecture and proceeds to explain how many schools of architecture, to this day, reject the tenents of classical architecture.
I found this book especially relevant, having endured 16 months of dismissive attitude and thinly-veiled hostility from an accredited professional we hired, and finally, fired.
Tom Wolfe, with great eloquence and humor, explains h...more
I found this book especially relevant, having endured 16 months of dismissive attitude and thinly-veiled hostility from an accredited professional we hired, and finally, fired.
Tom Wolfe, with great eloquence and humor, explains h...more
Dec 16, 2009
Jennifer
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
misc-nonfiction,
plants-and-design
This was a complete kick for me. Tom Wolfe makes any topic seem interesting but I did love hearing him reduce architectural modernism to the simplest terms possible so elegantly. His sardonic, exasperated review of modernism and post-modernism (and their many related dialects) was pitch-perfect. It was great to hear him express the same weariness I feel about the profession, albeit he wrote this book when I was only six years old. Despite that, it still seemed relevant to me and I'd say it was d...more
This book is a hilarious demolition job. It raises the mystifying question of how a small number of European architects from the 1920s managed to turn their field of work into a religion replete with dogma. It also looks at some of the devastating effects Bauhaus has had on urban planning and housing projects. In a way, Wolfe's criticism could have been even harsher. That is especially true of the figue of Le Corbusier – a man who would have torn down half of Paris if only they'd let him and who...more
Wolfe skewers Modern architecture. Often clever, occasionally funny, but also incomplete, petty and now, dated. I recommend this for readers who have studied at least some 20th century architectural history. Without some background, readers may be tempted to take him too seriously and simply share his opinions. That's a scary thought, but not as scary as someone whose only exposure to architectural theory is The Fountainhead. Yikes.
I've liked quite a few of Wolfe's books, but this is pretty pretentious stuff. I cringe as it reminds me of something I would have written back in my university days. You can tell Wolfe's thinking to himself "aren't I witty and erudite", but he comes across as a smarmy ass. Obnoxiously opinionated, he just sort of shits on everyone and everything (apparently Frank Lloyd Wright is the only decent architect of the past century - that may be true, but tell me why). On the plus side I did learn abou...more
Wolfe shoots the architect of the age off the pedestal with humor. He makes a dramatic situation funny and distills the whole of architectural history, making it human and identifiable with.
The book is basically concerned with american architecture - and how in the pre-WWII era the infusion of banished or fleeing European architects stopped the evolution of what american architecture could have been in its tracks. On the way Wolfe also does a great job of distilling the ideas of the different a...more
The book is basically concerned with american architecture - and how in the pre-WWII era the infusion of banished or fleeing European architects stopped the evolution of what american architecture could have been in its tracks. On the way Wolfe also does a great job of distilling the ideas of the different a...more
Jan 09, 2011
Ben Richmond
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
real-life-man,
mighty-bleak
I'm in the midst of an emotional confrontation with Wolfe's work at the moment, so I'm not sure how well I can do this. Okay, so since going to graduate school for journalism I'm been suspecting myself of being rather ill suited for this pursuit and in fact rather a fool for passing up a chance to fashion myself as a European-styled Intellectual by studying the liberal arts at the New School. If this all sounds terribly pretentious to you please know that I more than agree with you, but you shou...more
An acerbic critique of modern design and the uninspired forms which dominated American architecture in the post-war era through the 80s, Wolfe leaves no question about his stance on the issue.
His screed on the 'Yale box', its relations/derivations and their prolific propagation is unmitigated disgust. He also takes his shots at architects/designers themselves, in a number of asides and direct bullet-points.
This same topic is handled with far more care and context in Richard Sennett's The Conscie...more
His screed on the 'Yale box', its relations/derivations and their prolific propagation is unmitigated disgust. He also takes his shots at architects/designers themselves, in a number of asides and direct bullet-points.
This same topic is handled with far more care and context in Richard Sennett's The Conscie...more
Beneath his immaculate three-piece white suits and European flair, Tom Wolfe at heart is a "Hogstomping Baroque" American. His own exuberant journalistic style runs counter to the spare, self-effacing reporting of many renowned American journalists; and his take on 20th-century American architecture follows a similar bent. He asks, Why do American's continue to build massive glass-box buildings they detest? Don't they realize the International Style of architecture, all lines and sharp edges, wa...more
All you have to do is look up in any major western city to remind yourself how depressingly necessary this book remains. Tom Wolfe pops the ego of modern architecture, unmasking it as the kind of art we love, in spite of itself, because self-anointed experts tell us we should.
Wolfe goes on a bender of sarcasm to deflate the pompous, supposedly Marxist philosophies behind "glass box" modernism. He traces the rise & sanctification of men such as Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe & Phi...more
Wolfe goes on a bender of sarcasm to deflate the pompous, supposedly Marxist philosophies behind "glass box" modernism. He traces the rise & sanctification of men such as Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe & Phi...more
Sep 12, 2011
Abby
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
christ-church
A brief, snarky introduction to the wave of modern architecture in the 20th century. Overall, Wolfe's credibility was dampened, in my mind, because of his constant sarcasm and obvious disdain for all things modern architecture. I'm not a huge fan myself, but would it have killed him to say a few nice things? Don't read if you're looking for an objective account of an architectural movement. If you want a very biased and funny report, then Wolfe is your man.
I simultaneously hate and (secretly) love this guy. This book was really unfulfilling and ostentatious but at the same time I (secretly) loved his esoteric references and faux-Twain writing style (I also hated these things). I guess it just goes to show you that emotions, no matter how diametrically opposed they seem, are actually non-contradictory. I kind of want to read his other books now, but in secret, and always with a sneer.
Wolfe is a great storyteller, but as an architecture student, it is not very enlightening material. I don't even think it's a great read for non-architects because it can be misleading and shallow about architectural pedagogy. Granted some architectural theory is overblown with little substance, but this is a pretty water downed history.
Wolfe's wit crafts an uncovered history of modern architecture: how the Bauhause shaped the things to come. This is an excellent primer to get into the spirit of architectural history. Good to read while listening to modern Jazz.
If you like the movie "Helvetica" and modern design, you'll appreciate this book.
If you like the movie "Helvetica" and modern design, you'll appreciate this book.
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Wolfe was educated at Washington and Lee Universities and also at Yale, where he received a PhD in American studies.
Tom Wolfe spent his early days as a Washington Post beat reporter, where his free-association, onomatopoetic style would later become the trademark of New Journalism. In books such as The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, and The Bonfire of the Vanities, Wolfe delves into...more
More about Tom Wolfe...
Tom Wolfe spent his early days as a Washington Post beat reporter, where his free-association, onomatopoetic style would later become the trademark of New Journalism. In books such as The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, and The Bonfire of the Vanities, Wolfe delves into...more
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“Le Corbusier was the sort of relentlessly rational intellectual that only France loves wholeheartedly, the logician who flies higher and higher in ever-decreasing concentric circles until, with one last, utterly inevitable induction, he disappears up his own fundamental aperture and emerges in the fourth dimension as a needle-thin umber bird.”
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3 people liked it
“The sad truth was that the United States had not been reduced to a smoking rubble by the first World War.”
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2 people liked it
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Jun 09, 2008 05:31am