About the Book
The Banham Lectures presents a series of essays by leading critics on art, design, architecture and culture. All are inspired by the revolutionary work of Reyner Banham, who continues to be one of the greatest influences on Design and Architecture today. Integrating the study of pop art, industrial design and material culture for the first time, Banham's brilliant analyses of subjects - such as automobile styling, mobile homes, science fiction films, and our fondness for gadgets - anticipated many of our contemporary preoccupations. And just as Banham sought to overturn the views of previous generations, these critics aim to rethink the objects and buildings we use today. Provocative, engaged and inspired, The Banham Lectures is essential reading for anyone interested in the world we have made. CONTRIBUTORS: Mary Banham, Paul Barker, Tim Benton, Beatriz Colomina, Peter Cook, Elizabeth Collins Cromley, Frank Dudas, Adrian Forty, Christopher Frayling, Richard Hamilton, Mark Haworth-Booth, Tom Karen Pat Kirkham, Tomas Maldonado, Jeffrey L. Meikle, Gillian Naylor, Cedric Price, Ruth Schwartz-Cowan, Charles Saumarez Smith, Penny Sparke
Table of Contents:
Foreword, Mary Banham Introduction, Jeremy Aynsley, Royal College of Art PART ONE: IN THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR: BANHAM REVISITED 1. The Art of the Well-Tempered Lecture: Reyner Banham and Le Corbusier, Tim Benton, Open University 2. Of Cars, Clothes and Carpets: Design Metaphors in Architectural Thought, Adrian Forty, University College London 3. Theory and Design: The Banham Factor, Gillian Naylor 4. Reyner Banham and Photography, Mark Haworth-Booth, London College of Communication 5. Peter Would Enjoy These: Looking at the Edges of the Architectural Vocabulary Peter Cook, University College London PART TWO: FROM VEHICLES OF DESIRE TO SUNDAE PAINTERS: SEEING THINGS THE BANHAM WAY 6. Sleeping Around: a History of American Beds and Bedrooms, Elizabeth Collins Cromley, Northeastern University, Boston 7. Flash Gordon and American Auto Design in the 1950s, Frank Dudas 8. A Paper Atlantis: Postcards, Mass Art and the American Scene, Jeffrey L. Meikle, University of Texas at Austin 9. As Long as it's Pink: from Production to Consumption in Twentieth Century Design, Penny Sparke, Kingston University 10. Saul Bass: A Life in Design and Film; Saul and Elaine Bass: A Collaboration in Film and Life, Pat Kirkham, Bard Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York PART THREE: AN ARCHITECTURE AUTRE? LOOKING AT THE OVERLOOKED 11. Architecture and the Museum: A Relationship Between Form and Function, Charles Saumarez Smith, Royal Academy, London 12. Non-Plan Revisited: Or the Real Way Cities Grow, Paul Barker, writer, broadcaster, former Editor of New Society 13. Time: Architecture's Touchstone, Cedric Price 14. Enclosed by Images: Architecture in the Post-Sputnik Age, Beatriz Colomina, Princeton University PART FOUR: APPARATUS, CLIP-ON, GIZMO, SOFTWARE, HIGH-TECH: FUTURISM, DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY 15. An Historian of Science and Technology Confronts Gender and Design, Ruth Schwartz Cowan, University of Pennsylvania 16. Materials and Dematerialization: The Future of Industrial Design, Tomas Maldonado, Polytechnic of Milan 17. Marcel Duchamp's White Box notes, Richard Hamilton 18. Designing the Future: an Industrial Designer's Perspective, Tom Karen, Director of Ogle Design 19. Rotwang and Sons: The Soul of the Designer in the Machine Age, Christopher Frayling, Royal College of Art, London General Bibliography Bibliography of Banham's Writings
About the Author :
EDITORS: Jeremy Aynsley is Professor of History of Design at the Royal College of Art, London and author of Graphic Design in Germany 1890-1945 and Designing Modern Germany. Harriet Atkinson is a historian and Research Fellow based at the Royal College of Art.
Review :
These lively essays by distinguished authors highlight both the importance of design history and Reyner Banham's highly influential contributions to that history. The book will introduce Banham's zany and original voice to a new generation of readers who may not yet know what a signal role he played in shaping our views of modern architecture, popular culture and twentieth-century design.
Banham's words accompany the reader throughout the book while his persona gradually emerges from the authors' anecdotes.
Reyner Banham could not have hoped for a better testament to his lively intelligence than the incisive essays in this volume. His impact on several generations of architects, designers, and scholars is more than evident.
[The] essays cover Banham's favorite topics -- from Pop Art to popular culture, including tectonics, electronics, and more -- indicating design's complete submission to capitalist indoctrination. Summing Up: Recommended.
The Banham Lectures... offers insights by leading scholars of architecture, art, design and culture, among them Sir Christopher Frayling, Gillian Naylor and Penny Sparke.
