Overview

This book explores the impact of medical discourse and diagnostic technologies on the formation, representation, and reception of modern architecture. It challenges the normal understanding of modern architecture by proposing that the architecture of the early twentieth century was shaped by the dominant medical obsession of its time: tuberculosis and its primary diagnostic tool, the X-ray.If architectural discourse has from its beginning associated building and body, the body that it describes is the medical body, reconstructed by each new theory of health. Modern architects pre- sented their architecture as a kind of medical instrument for protecting and enhancing the body. X-ray technology and modern architecture were born around the same time and evolved in parallel. While the X-ray exposed the inside of the body to the public eye, the modern building unveiled its interior, inverting the relationship between private and public.Colomina suggests that if we want to talk about the state of the art in buildings, we should look to the dominant obsessions about illness and the latest techniques of imaging the body-and ask what effects they may have on the way we conceive architecture. AUTHOR: Beatriz Colomina is founding director of the program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University and Professor in the School of Architecture. She has written extensively on the inter- relationships between architecture, art, media, sexuality, and health. SELLING POINTS: .This book discusses a new, compelling theory in architecture that has not been widely discussed before. The author parallels the development of the X-ray with the development of modern architecture. .This book discusses architecture from the early twentieth century to today. 277 illustrations

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9783037784433

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In X-Ray Architecture, Colomina revisits and further nuances the connection between disease and modern architecture.--Ashley Simone Bomb

In X-Ray Architecture, Colomina revisits and further nuances the connection between disease and modern architecture.--Ashley Simone Bomb X-Ray Architecture, contends that the interrelated phenomena of the tuberculosis pandemic and the discovery of the X-ray were the progenitors of European Modernism and its exports. With a minimum of six feet distance between us, Colomina recounted the glossed-over history of glassy architecture as a cure-all.--Drew Zeiba PIN-UP

"A new theory of architecture is on the horizon.--Ashley Simone ""Bomb"" After years of research, the book by Beatriz Colomina explores the impact of medical theories and diagnostic technologies on the formation, representation and reception of modern architecture--Elena Sommariva ""Domus"" Beatriz Colomina is one of the most exciting voices in architecture, bringing her unfailing canny perspective to topics as broad as Playboy, domesticity, the bed, and even what it means to be human--AD EditorialTeam ""ArchDaily"" You don't have to be passionate about architecture to be engrossed in this book. The text is witty, clear and packed with anecdotes. [...] In short, the book might be entertaining but it also does a great job at highlighting how the architectural discipline is capable of assimilating and reflecting changes in society.--R�gine Debatty ""We Make Money Not Art"" X-Ray Architecture, contends that the interrelated phenomena of the tuberculosis pandemic and the discovery of the X-ray were the progenitors of European Modernism and its exports. With a minimum of six feet distance between us, Colomina recounted the glossed-over history of glassy architecture as a cure-all.--Drew Zeiba ""PIN-UP"""

Author Information

BEATRIZ COLOMINA is founding director of the program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University and Professor in the School of Architecture. She has written extensively on the inter- relationships between architecture, art, media, sexuality, and health.

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