[1st ed] The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?

First edition of Reyner Banham’s foundational disquisition on Brutalist architecture presenting, per the liner notes, “a scholarly history of the documentable facts on Brutalism, an eye-witness account of the period and personalities that produced it, and a comparative critique of numerous buildings regarded—rightly or wrongly—as examples of Brutalist architecture.” Explores texts and buildings by an international roster of architects including Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, James Stirling, Sir Owen Williams, Louis Kahn, Johannes van den Broke, Vladimir Bodiansky, William G. Howell, Richard Llewelyn-Davies, Denys Lasdun, Sir Basil Spence, Peter Moro, Andre Wogenscky, Atelier 5, Walter Forderer, Sverre Fehn, Oswald Mathias Ungers, Sir Leslie Martin, Vittorio Vigano, Aldo van Eyck, Paul Rudolph, Kiyonori Kikutake, Kunio Mayekawa, and not least, the architects regarded by Banham as the founders of the New Brutalism, Peter and Alison Smithson. Published in 1966 by Karl Kramer as volume 5 of Documents of Modern Architecture, a series edited by Jugen Kramer. 4to, hardcover with pictorial dust jacket designed by Hanns Lohrer, 196 pages, illustrated throughout in black-and-white. Slight bowing to boards. Light rubbing, bumping and chipping to dj, with small closed tears to top edge.