Description
The celebrated Dutch architect and urban planner Cornelis van Eesteren is best known for his work on the General Expansion Plan for Amsterdam (AUP), dating from 1934 and implemented after the Second World War, and for his role as the chairman of the International Congress for Modern Architecture (CIAM) from 1930 to 1947. He was a pioneer and highly influential figure in what is termed modernist urbanism.
However, during his less-known coming-of-age years in the 1910s and 1920s, an exceptionally exciting period in the history of art in general and in the history of architecture and urban planning in particular, the curious and talented young man was in the right place at the right time. He visited the Bauhaus in Weimar, and met Walter Gropius, El Lissitzky and Theo van Doesburg. He spent a week in Vienna with Adolf Loos, he joined the De Stijl collective and moved to Paris; he worked with Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg and Gerrit Rietveld on the (now legendary) De Stijl exhibition in Paris in the fall of 1923.
This chronological account of a young man’s growth into maturity is dedicated to the early years of his professional life, to his encounters, friendships and fallouts, and especially to his relationship with Theo van Doesburg and his involvement with the activities of De Stijl. The biography format presents a unique opportunity to understand his trajectory, and in particular his ever-present fascination with urban planning, by linking the man to his work.
96 pages, 40 colour illustrations & bw / 17 x 22 cm / English
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