Hans Ibelings - European Architecture since 1890
Towards the end of the nineteenth century European cities began to grow at an explosive rate, creating huge demand for public buildings. New city dwellers attracted by industry and commerce needed houses, schools, hospitals and libraries. Architects were no longer exclusively at the service of the church and local rulers; commissioned by swelling bureaucracies and public institutions, they designed their buildings accordingly.
At the same time the number of architects increased, making professional standards and training institutions essential. Hans Ibelings’ comprehensive study European Architecture since 1890 is the first book of its kind to extend the boundaries of Europe eastwards as far as the Ural mountains in the former Soviet Union and south-eastwards to Ankara in Turkey. It includes the history of post-war architecture in the Soviet Empire, filling the gaps created by ignorance of developments behind the Iron Curtain.
The examples presented in Ibelings’ richly illustrated book reveal that despite a limited exchange of ideas between East and West, outcomes were remarkably similar. Open spaces and modernistic styles prevailed, resulting in sprawling urban settlements and improved living conditions, both for the growing population of the capitalist West and for citizens of Eastern Europe’s socialist states.
Biography
Hans Ibelings is an architectural historian, writer and critic, and the author of several books about high-profile figures in Dutch architecture. His Supermodernism. Architecture in the Age of Globalization (1998), in which he looks at international developments, has been translated into English, Spanish, French and Italian. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of A10, a highly acclaimed and influential magazine of new European architecture.
Quotes
- ‘Ibelings shows that many of the architectonic methods used to create the old landscapes, towns, villages, neighbourhoods and dwellings we love are still usable in the twenty-first century.’ – NRC Handelsblad