Modernism's Visible Hand: Architecture and Regulation in America

Description

Drawing on a range of previously unexplored archival resources, Michael Osman examines the increasing role of environmental technologies in building design from the late nineteenth century- from cold storage and scientific laboratories to factories. Osman broadens our conception of how industrial capitalism shaped the built environment as well as the role of design in dealing with ecological crises today.

Michael Osman is associate professor of architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Michael Osman weaves a complex web of interaction between architecture, science, and technology, as well as between architecture, business, and management. Modernism's Visible Hand is not only brilliant, it is also path-breaking."-Antoine Picon, author of Smart Cities: A Spatialised Intelligence "Michael Osman takes us on an extraordinary journey through turn-of-the-twentieth-century modern American life, travelling from temperature-controlled homes and cold-storage warehouses, to Pennsylvania's factories and Indiana's sand dunes. This engrossing, brilliant book is an altogether new look at American architecture, technology, and everyday life; it will be of immense value to readers interested in all these subjects."-Daniel M. Abramson, author of Obsolescence: An Architectural History