Environmental Design – Architecture, Politics, and Science in Postwar America

Environmental DesignArchitecture, Politics, and Science in Postwar America\nAuthor(s): Avigail Sachs\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: University of Virginia Press, United States\nImprint: University of Virginia Press\nISBN-13: 9780813947556, 978-0813947556\nSynopsis\nMuch of twentieth-century design was animated by the creative tension of its essential duality: is design an art or a science? In the postwar era, American architects sought to calibrate architectural practice to evolving scientific knowledge about humans and environments, thus elevating the disciplines stature and enmeshing their work in a progressive restructuring of society. This political and scientific effort was called \""environmental design,\"" a term expanded in the 1960s to include ecological and liberal ideas. In her expansive new study, Avigail Sachs examines the theoretical scaffolding and practical legacy of this professional effort.\n\nInspired by Lewis Mumfords 1932 challenge enjoining architects to go beyond.