Space, Time and Architecture

Space, Time and Architecture
Name	Space, Time and Architecture
Author	Sigfried Giedion
Country	Switzerland
Language	German (original), English (translation)
Subject	Architecture
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Harvard University Press
Pub date	1941
Pages	576

Contents

Space, Time and Architecture Space, Time and Architecture is a landmark work by Sigfried Giedion that synthesizes modernist theory and history, linking movements, personalities, and institutions across Europe and the United States. The book situates Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe within broader networks that include Bauhaus, CIAM, De Stijl, and Werkbund, tracing influences from Gothic architecture to Industrial Revolution technologies and contemporary exhibitions such as the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne.

Introduction

Giedion frames his argument through comparisons between Albert Einstein's theories, the innovations of Louis Sullivan, and exhibitions like the Great Exhibition; he posits that shifts in perception driven by figures such as Henri Bergson and Pablo Picasso require a rethinking of architectural language. The introduction references critics and patrons including Vladimir Tatlin, Le Corbusier's patrons in Paris, and institutions such as Museum of Modern Art and Harvard Graduate School of Design that mediated modernism. Giedion invokes engineering and artistic innovators—Gustave Eiffel, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Eero Saarinen, Antoni Gaudí—to argue for an integrated view connecting Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism.

Giedion traces genealogies from Gothic Revival through the Arts and Crafts Movement of William Morris and Philip Webb to the industrial work of Peter Behrens, Hermann Muthesius, and Adolf Loos. He situates De Stijl figures like Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian alongside Bauhaus masters Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, and László Moholy-Nagy, and connects them with engineers and architects such as Fritz Höger, Erich Mendelsohn, and Bruno Taut. The narrative engages with events including the World War I, the Weimar Republic, and the Great Depression, and references exhibitions and organizations like the Werkbund Exhibition, the Daily Telegraph Exhibition, and the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts.

Central themes include material innovation exemplified by reinforced concrete projects of August Perret and Pier Luigi Nervi, spatial continuity in works by Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, and temporal perception influenced by Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson. Giedion analyzes typologies developed by Louis Sullivan and formal experiments by Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, and Erich Mendelsohn, while engaging kinship with artists Wassily Kandinsky, Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí, and Piet Mondrian. He also addresses pedagogical shifts at Bauhaus, École des Beaux-Arts, and Harvard Graduate School of Design, and institutional roles of Museum of Modern Art, RIBA, and American Institute of Architects.

Originally published in German in 1941 and translated into English shortly thereafter, the book received attention from critics, academics, and practitioners including Philip Johnson, Lewis Mumford, Nikolaus Pevsner, Sigmund Freud's cultural circle, and editors at Architectural Review and Architectural Forum. Reviews appeared alongside debates in venues such as The New York Times, The Times (London), and Vogue (magazine), and responses came from architects like Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and urbanists associated with CIAM and Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. Publishers and academic presses including Harvard University Press and libraries at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Cambridge circulated the book widely.

Giedion's synthesis influenced curricula at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Bauhaus successors, and schools such as Columbia University, ETH Zurich, Delft University of Technology, Politecnico di Milano, and Princeton University. Practitioners and theorists—Alvar Aalto, Eero Saarinen, Kenzo Tange, Tadao Ando, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Aldo Rossi, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, James Stirling, Zaha Hadid, and Norman Foster—engaged with Giedion's ideas on space and temporality. Urban projects in cities like Barcelona, Chicago, Berlin, Brasília, Tokyo, New York City, and Helsinki reflect dialogues on form and function linked to his work, while policy forums such as UNESCO cultural programs and commissions in United Nations planning referenced modernist paradigms.

Critiques emerged from figures and schools including Jane Jacobs, Aldo Rossi, Robert Venturi, Manuel de Solà-Morales, Pierre Bourdieu, and scholars at University College London and Yale University who challenged narratives privileging European modernists over regional traditions. Postcolonial and feminist scholars—Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Dorothy Rowe's contemporaries, and critics in journals such as Oppositions and Assemblage—questioned canonical biases. Debates around historic preservation involving ICOMOS, English Heritage, and National Trust for Historic Preservation engaged Giedion's modernization theses, while theoretical rebuttals referenced Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Henri Lefebvre.

Multiple editions and translations were published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge University Press, and European publishers, with editions appearing in German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Arabic, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Czech Republic editions, and more. Later annotated and revised versions included introductions by scholars from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, TU Delft, Columbia University, and University of Pennsylvania, and were cited in bibliographies alongside works by Nikolaus Pevsner, Lewis Mumford, Kenneth Frampton, Manfredo Tafuri, Charles Jencks, and Stanley Tigerman.

Category:Architecture books