High tech architecture : a style reconsidered / Angus J. MacDonald.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Intro; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgements; Chapter One: The origins of the High Tech style; Chapter Two: Early developments: The beginnings of High Tech; Chapter Three: Establishing the style: The significant projects of the 1970s; Chapter Four: The mature phase: The architecture of corporate finance; Chapter Five: Is there such a thing as 'real' High Tech?; Chapter Six: Stylistic High Tech: A wrong turn on the way to tomorrow?; Selected bibliography; Notes; Index

High Tech - sometimes known as Structural Expression - is a style of Modern architecture that produced some of the most prominent and visually exciting buildings of the twentieth century. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation headquarters in Hong Kong, the Lloyd's of London headquarters in London, UK, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. Extensively illustrated with photographs and diagrams, and accessibly written, High Tech Architecture - A style reconsidered discusses the intended meanings of the visual vocabulary involved in High Tech, and places the style in the broad context of other Modern architecture of the twentieth century. The book offers a balanced re-appraisal of the extravagant claims that have been made for High Tech, by its progenitors and architectural critics, as an architecture appropriate for the built environment of the future.
Source: Publisher

Angus J Macdonald is Professor Emeritus of Architectural Structures in the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and a former Head of the Department of Architecture, both at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include architectural structures, architectural history and cultural landscape. He is the author or co-author of eleven books on these subjects, including the acclaimed Structure and Architecture, now in its third edition and available in seven languages and as an e-book; Structural Design for Architecture, an overview of structural design in relation to architecture; and a professional biography of the High tech structural engineer Anthony Hunt, in the series, of which he was the joint originator, The Engineer's Contribution to Contemporary Architecture, published by Thomas Telford Ltd (The Institution of Civil Engineers, UK).