| Indigenous Modernities: Negotiating Architecture and Urbanism Contributor(s): Hosagrahar, Jyoti (Author) |
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ISBN: 0415323762 ISBN-13: 9780415323765 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $68.39 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2005 Annotation: This book examines the ways in which a historic, and so-called "traditional" city quietly mutated into one that was modern in its own terms not only in form but also in its use and meaning. Through a study of Delhi, the author challenges some prevalent dichotomies and myths in architecture and urbanism and identifies an interpretation of modernism that expands upon conventional understandings of it. Conventional discourse in the West defines modern as the antithesis of that which is 'not-modern' or is 'traditional.' Many scholars have debated the significance of the words and most agree that the very word 'tradition' was a modernist creation that variously implied threatened by change, backwardness, resistance to innovation. The first part of this book reflects on the transformations and discontinuities in built form and spatial culture and calls into question accepted notions of the static nature of what is normally referred to as 'traditional' and 'non-Western' architecture. The second part isa critical discussion of Delhi in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It expands upon conventional understandings of modernity in a way that wrenches free the city's architecture and the society from the objectified realm of the exotic while also acknowledging cultural conditions of modernity and modern architecture outside the West. Stepping outside Western canons, this project looks at late nineteenth and early twentieth century architecture to include them in a conversation on architecture that has typically focused on Western Europe and North America. Finally, the author seeks out the "indigenous modernities": the irregular, the uneven, and the unexpected in whatuncritical observers might label a perfectly coherent 'traditional' built environment; or in the influence of local society and institutions on forms that appear modern by conventional standards in the West. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Architecture | History - General - Architecture | Criticism - Architecture | Study & Teaching |
| Dewey: 720.954 |
| LCCN: 2004018250 |
| Series: Architext |
| Physical Information: 0.49" H x 7" W x 9.6" (1.14 lbs) 240 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book examines how a historic and so-called 'traditional' city quietly evolved into one that was modern in its own terms; in form, use and meaning. Through a focused study of Delhi, the author challenges prevalent assumptions in architecture and urbanism to identify an interpretation of modernism that goes beyond conventional understanding. Part one reflects on transformations and discontinuities in built form and spatial culture and questions accepted notions of the static nature of what is normally referred to as traditional and non-Western architecture. Part two is a critical discussion of Delhi in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, redefining modernism in a way that separates the city's architecture and society from the objectified realm of the exotic whilst acknowledging non-Western ideas of modernity. In the final part the author considers 'indigenous modernities': the irregular, the uneven and the unexpected in what uncritical observers might call a coherent 'traditional' society and built environment. |