How to Read Modern Buildings: A Crash Course in Architecture of the Modern Era

Small enough to fit in a pocket yet serious enough to provide real answers, this is the ultimate field guide to understanding modern architecture.

This eighth entry in Rizzoli’s popular How to Read… series is a one-stop guide to understanding the world’s iconic modern buildings: an indispensable pocket-sized guide to the architecture of the modern era.

This volume takes the reader on a tour of modern architecture through its most iconic and significant buildings, showing how to read the hallmarks of each architectural style and how to recognize them in the buildings. From Art Deco and Arts and Crafts through Bauhaus, the International Style, and Modernism to today’s environmental architecture and the rise and fall of the “starchitect”, all the major architectural movements from the 1900s to the present day are traced through their classic buildings. Examining the key architectural elements and hidden details of each style, we learn what to look for and where to look for it.

Filled with detailed drawings, plans, and photographs, this book is a fascinating architectural history—a must-read for anyone with an interest in architecture, urbanism, and modern design.