The Architecture of The Well-Tempered Environment by Reyner Banham

Review by: James Marston Fitch

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Oct., 1970), pp. 282-284
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
282
blocks,occupiesthe
parks,and residential
zoneof the rampartsandglaciswhichfor-
merlyencircledthe innercity. A planning
competitionwasheldin I858;construction
continueduntil the outbreakof World
War I. The Ringthusdatesfromthe Vic-
torian,ArtNouveau,andEdwardian peri-
ods. Itsmajorpublicbuildingsincludethe
GothicRevivalVotive Churchand City
Hall, the GreekRevivalParliament,and
the Opera, University,Museumof Art
History, Museum of Natural History,
BurgTheater,Academyof FineArts,Pal-
aceofJustice,StockExchange,Museumof
ArtsandCrafts,ConcertHall,ImperialPal-
aceandothersinvariousstylesof Neo-Ren-
aissanceandNeo-Baroque. These"revival"
labelsare, of course,quite obsolete.The
buildingsof the Ringhave,in fact,a style
of theirown.Theyaremonumentsof what
we call the VictorianAge (the Queen
reigned I837-1901) and what the Austrians
call the Francisco-Josephinian
Age (the
Emperor reigned 1848-1916). The present
book regardsthemas monumentsof His-
torismuswhichis besttranslated as"eclecti-
cism."A few buildingsof the Ring,nota-
bly the Secessionby Olbrich,anartgallery
of 1898,and the PostalSavingsBankby
Otto Wagner,designedin 1903,are out-
sidethe eclectictradition.
Thebookdoesnot onlypresentthesefa-
mous publicbuildingsbut many palatial
residencesand apartmenthouses which
have hardlybeen studiedbefore.Most of
areexcellentphotographs
the illustrations
specially taken for this volume; they in-
cludemanyviews of magnificentinteriors
andfascinating details.Thesenew pictures
have been wisely supplemented by hand-
some nineteenth-century photographsof
buildingsandstreetscapes. The colorplates
-almost all of interiors-are dazzling
imagesof splendorin marble,stucco,fres-
co, mosaic,metal,and glass.Few readers
can have any conceptionof the printing
craftsmanship whichproducedthebrilliant
reproductionsof these exceptionallyde-
tailedcolorphotographs.The picturesare
accompanied by a substantialtext of over
200pages.Thenotesontheillustrations pro-
videbothhistorical dataandsomekeenfor-
malanalysesin thebestGermanicmanner.
On the evidence of this introductory
volumeand the announcedprogram,Die
WienerRingstrasse is a monumentalwork
It should
of relevanthistoricalscholarship.
be of outstandingvalueandinterestto all
seriousstudentsof nineteenth-century ar-
chitectureandcivilization.
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I do not wish to lose my franchiseas a
criticalreviewer.I thereforecheckedthe
FrenchandEnglishtranslations whichfol-
low the GermanIntroduction.(Transla-
tionsareusuallythe Achillesheelof archi-
tecturalbooks.) They are free of errors,
which indicatesunusualeditorialcare. I
then went over the 525 picturesagain,
checkingthem againstother books and
callinguponmy own memoriesof walking
on the Ring every schoolday for twelve
years.I foundthatNo.183is anawkwardly
foreshortened view of the strikingGoethe
monument.
It would thusappearthatWagner-Rie-
ger and her associateshave produceda
99.8%perfectbookof architectural history.
JOHN MAASS
City of Philadelphia
of The
ReynerBanham,The Architecture
Chicago:The
Environment,
Well-Tempered
University of Chicago Press,1969, 295 pp.,
illus., $I5.00.
Consideringthe author'spastwork and
present reputation,this is a surprising
book: smallin size, limitedin scope and
specializedin subjectmatter,and-except
for a sometimespolemicalintroduction-
verymatter-of-fact in tone.Nonetheless,it
is a mostsignificantpieceof work. An art
historian'sexplorationof the architecture
of the last century,it dispenseswith the
conventionalart historicalpreoccupation
with stylisticorigins,influences,andattri-
butions.It is concerned,instead,with sub-
surfacetechnologicaldevelopments whose
consequences were often literallyinvisible
andwhoseoriginsaremoreoftenfoundin
cataloguesandpatentapplications thanthe
scholarlyliteratureof architectural history.
In thissense,Banham'snew book is in the
Giedeon tradition. He recognizes this,
though he is at some painsto denigrate
MechanizationTakes Command.Instead of
havingbeen"anauthoritative andconclu-
sivestatement" he feelsthatit is actually"a
tentativebeginningof a fieldof studythat
opened almost infinite opportunitiesfor
furtherresearch. . . it has been neither
glossed,criticized,annotated,extendedor
demolished.'Giedeon',one is told, 'hasn't
left muchto be said'. . . thispresentbook
representsa tiny fractionof whatGiedeon
left unsaid"(p. 15).
Banham'sbook does representan ad-
vance over Giedeon'spioneeringwork.
Thisis partlydueto the factthatit concen-
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
trates on a single theme-the technologies
of environmental control; but even more
importantly, because of a conceptual mas-
tery of the physicaltheory and engineering
practicesinvolved. This has importantcon-
sequences for Banham's critical posture,
enabling him to avoid that endemic hazard
of architecturalcriticism-"the tendency
to offer definitivejudgements on the basis
solely of visual inspection" (p. 264). (He
might well have been even more specific:
on the basis of visual inspection of photo-
graphic facsimile alone.) He is concerned
with tracing out the esthetic consequences
of the environmental technologies which
made modern architecturehabitable,rather
than with the structural advances which
made it so photogenic.
The technologies are: heating, cooling
and ventilating, artificialillumination, and
acoustics.Generallyspeaking, the effective
manipulation of these environmental fac-
tors awaited the appearance of reliable
sourcesof energy and of mechanicalprime
movers. It is possible to cite earlierisolated
buildings which made some ingenious ex-
ploitation of suchnaturalphenomenaas the
gravity circulation of heated air or water.
But it was not until the mid-nineteenth
century that such technologies became
reallypracticablewith the appearance,first,
of piped illuminating gas and steam-pow-
ered pump and fan; and subsequently, of
the electric dynamo and power grid and
electric motor and incandescentlight bulb.
Thus Banham's survey covers almost
preciselythe last one hundredyears. He ac-
cepts the proposition-first advanced by
this reviewer in Architecture and The Esthet-
ics of Plenty (New York, I96I)-that the
new epoch in environmental management
was accurately forecast by the American
publication, in 1869, of CatharineBeech-
er's model house, with its extraordinary
heating and ventilating system, its com-
plete indoor plumbing system, its gas light-
ing, and its compartmentalized kitchen.
Banham's account covers many buildings
and personalitiestotally missing from the
conventional histories of modern architec-
ture (e.g., the Royal Victoria Hospital in
Belfast; Willis Havilland Carrier, the
American air-conditioning pioneer), as
well as uncovering overlooked environ-
mental featuresof many famous buildings
(e.g., the air-handlingsystem of Wright's
Larkin Building or the advanced artificial
illuminationof early housesby Neutra and
Schindler). In following the trail of this
evolutionary process, Banham shuttles

back and forth acrossthe Atlantic.Thus the
English pioneered in developing many of
the components of an electricaldistribution
system. It was Thomas Edison who suc-
ceeded in bringing them together "as a
practicablekit for generating, controlling,
measuring,distributingandutilizing power
derived from a central generating station"
(p. 6I). But it was in London that Edison
was successfulin putting the first such sys-
tem to work!
Banham views these developments from
the vantage point of "Mid-Atlantic" cul-
ture which he shareswith many of his Eng-
lishcontemporaries.(Hispro-Americanori-
entation is obvious, and it is perhapsappro-
priatethat the book itself was made possible
by a Fellowship from the GrahamFounda-
tion in Chicago.) This posture is not an un-
mixed blessing. It enables him to handle
trans-Atlanticdevelopments with ease and
authority, but it also gives him a jaundiced
view of many Europeandevelopments. He
is savage towards the Italiansin their "his-
tory-sodden ambiente." He is consistently
hostile towards Gropius and Le Corbusier,
and only a little kinder to Mies van der
Rohe in his later, American phase (Mies's
name does not appear in the index!). He
seems to regard them as an elitist intelli-
gentsia who polemicized much but built
little, and who seldom checked their aes-
thetic ambitions against experiential real-
ity. While they "had been trying to devise
a style that would 'civilize technology,'
U.S. engineers had devised a technology
which would make the modern style of
architecturehabitable by civilized human
beings" (p. 162).
Such a verdict may seem wickedly ac-
curate when Banham is detailing the en-
vironmental failure of Le Corbusier'sglass
walls at the Cite de Refiugeor the Swiss Pa-
vilion. But anyone who, like the present
reviewer, has taken the trouble actually to
visit suchmonuments of this era as the Bau-
haus in Dessau or the Tugendhat house in
Brno cannot but be astounded both by
their stylistic durability and their concern
for environmentalamenity. Gropius'sheat-
ing and illuminationssystemsare "wise and
human," as even Banham admits; and,
even today, it is obvious thatthe Tugendhat
house must have been a model of domestic
felicity, due to the way in which Mies
solved such problems as winter heating,
summer ventilation, control of sunshine,
privacy, and view. Banham's pro-Amer-
ican bias is nowhere more apparentthan in
his criticismofLe Corbusier'sglasswalls at
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the Villa Savoye: "environmentalhorrors
-especially [for] the tremendoussolarheat
gain due to greenhouse effects in summer,
and the equally tremendous thermal losses
in winter due to the almost non-existent
insulating qualities of thin window-glass"
(p. 51). Yet he can praisePhilipJohnson's
glass box in Darien, which displays pre-
cisely the same environmental deficiencies
-and in the much more difficultclimate of
New England!
Nevertheless, one can understandsome
of Banham's exasperation with the great
masters.He feels that they failed to accom-
plish what they set out to do-i.e., to use
modern technology as the determinant of
form. At most, they were interested pri-
marily in structural
technology, and too of-
ten they employed it only for purely plastic
excitement or visualeffect.Even when they
do confront environmental problems, he
feels, they only pay them lip service (e.g.,
Le Corbusier'sbrise-soleil,which did not at
all breakthe sun). It is in this light that one
can understand-and to a large extent,
agree with-Banham's praisefor Wright's
work in the first decade of the century.
Wright not only employed the new tech-
nology (window wall, steel and concrete,
panel heating, electric lighting) to produce
new levels of environmental felicity. He
also used them in such a way as to trans-
mute them into authentic aesthetic inven-
tions.
Thus, the Americans, by their hard-
headed and pragmatic development of en-
vironmentaltechnologies,"hadcome with-
in an ace of producing a workable alterna-
tive to buildings as the unique means of
managing the environment, and had thus
come within an ace of making architecture
culturally obsolete, at least in the sensesin
which the word 'architecture' had been
traditionallyunderstood,the sensein which
Le Corbusier had written Versuine Archi-
tecture"(p. 162). The Americansmight in-
deed have come within an ace of producing
such an authenticallynew kind of architec-
ture; but they have not succeeded.Survey-
ing the most recent phase in this country,
with all its idiosyncraticstriving for visual
novelty, Banham is forced to recognize
that, "far from being a determinant of
form, environmentalmachineryhas tended
more and more to become the stimulantor
excuse for experiments made possible by
their liberating effects ... in freeing archi-
tecture from local climatic constraints,me-
chanicalenvironmental management tech-
niques have given carte-blanche for formal
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
283
experimentation" (p. 239). They have
made possible a more "wilful and roman-
tic" architecturethan ever before.
The concluding chaptersof this book at-
tempt to establishthe parametersfor an au-
thentically new architectural aesthetic in
which the new environmentaltechnologies
would act as determinantsof valid form.
To illustratehis thesis, he cites five recent
projects (p. 285). None of them is prepos-
sessingin visual terms and some are down-
right ugly; but there is nothing perverse
about their selection, which is for exem-
plary performance in non-visual fields.
Such a posture could easily lead one into
the spaceage metaphysicsof MarshallMc-
Luhan and his electronic circus. And Ban-
ham seems almost on the verge of this
when he suggeststhat the night-time street-
scapesof Las Vegas, their rooflessvolumes
tracedin a net of electric lights, are as valid
as the allees of Versailles. Here one sees
"how farenvironmentaltechnology can be
driven beyond the confines of architectural
practice by designers who (for worse or
better) are not inhibited by the traditions
of architectonicculture, training and taste"
(p. 270). But he is fundamentally too saga-
cious to fall for current pop-art penetra-
tions into architecturaltheory. Such fanta-
sists and visionaries have failed and will
continue to failbecausetheirforms "proved
neither to guaranteenor even indicate sig-
nificant environmental and functional im-
provements over what the older structural
technology afforded ... this was merely
that older technology dressed up in bor-
rowed clothes." Only when forms proper
to the environmental propositions being
made are commonly at hand, concludes
Banham, "will the architectureof the well-
temperedenvironmentbecome as convinc-
ing as the millennial architecture of the
past" (p. 289).
The index of the book is only fair and
the suggested readings totally inadequate.
It is true, as Banham says, that there are no
general inter-disciplinaryworks on man/
environment relations (though there is an
enormous periodical literatureon the sub-
ject), but there are some books which illu-
minate some aspectsof this terrain.For ex-
ample, Bernard Rudofsky's Architecture
withoutArchitects(New York, 1964) for a
glimpse of the brilliant response of pre-
literate cultures to environmental exigen-
cies; Victor Olgjay's Design wlithClimate
(Princeton, I963), a clearand cogent hand-
book on architectural climatology; and
JamesJ. Gibson's The SensesConsideredas
284
PerceptualSystems(New York, 1966), for
the clearestexposition to date of man's ex-
periential relationship with his environ-
ment.
JAMES MARSTON FITCH
ColumbiaUniversity
Royal Commission on Historical Monu-
ments, England, An Inventoryof Historical ishesbegins with a brief introduction, then
Monumentsin theCountyof Cambridge, Vol.
I: West Cambridgeshire, London: Her Maj-
esty's Stationery Office, 1968, lxix+ 256
pp., 197 dwgs., 144 pls. $22.68.
In 1959 the Royal Commission on His-
torical Monuments published its volume
on the monuments of the City of Cam-
bridge; now, nine years later, it has fol-
lowed this with its survey of West Cam-
bridgeshire. Like the earlier volume, this
one is a very fine example of the thorough,
accurate,and scholarly inventories under-
taken by this public body in England, es-
pecially in recent years. Here, however,
there are no collegiate structures,nor, for
that matter, are there any cathedrals or
great mansions-or at the most only one
major country house. Perhaps the absence
of famous monuments emphasizes even
more the competence with which this
work hasbeen done. A number of long and
involved descriptions of major churches, of cultivationin the form of ridgesand fur-
houses, and the like would tend to destroy
the balance achieved in the volume and
thus obscure the system which makes it a
model of its kind. As it is, this study is ex-
actly that, a paradigm,and, of course, a de-
finitive survey of the architecturalmonu-
ments of the area.
This volume is devoted to the thirty-
seven parishes that comprise the western
quadrant of Cambridgeshire, roughly
triangle lying to the west, northwest, and
southwest of the universitytown. They are
rural parishes,each with its parish church,
in almost all cases medieval, a number of
small or medium-sized houses, and a vari-
ety of other relatively small monuments.
Scatteredthrough the areaare a few larger
houses, only one of which, Wimpole Hall,
is likely to be at all familiarto anyone out-
side the field of English architecture.But
each of these parisheshas been systemati-
cally examined, inventoried, and reported.
In addition, there is a general introduction
to the area,which includesconsiderationof
natural topography and geology, village
development, and building materials, as
well as a generalizedsurvey of ecclesiastical house indicates that the pattern employed
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structures,house plans, other secularbuild-
ings, and earthworks and moats. This last
category, together with the greater con-
cern for village patternsand development,
indicates a newer interest in this series of
studies, which have in the past tended to
concentrate more on individual architec-
tural monuments.
The actualinventory of each of the par-
passeson to church architecture,which in
almost every case is dominated by a de-
tailed discussionof the parish church. The
account is straight-forwardand objective,
with no room for emotional responses.In-
cluded are the fabric of the building, its
history, materials,and details, as well as a
large range of fittings, describedalphabeti-
cally from bells to stoups, with extensive
listings of tombs and monuments. The sec-
ond major category is seculararchitecture,
largely emphasizinghouses, though includ-
ing inns, almhouses,gatehouses,mills, etc.
These descriptionsare generallyquite brief,
with the houses assignedto one of the plan
types outlined in the general introduction,
though some of the entriesare fairly exten-
sive and a few (Wimpole Hall, especially)
are describedin substantialdetail. The last
major category is that of earthworks,
which includeRoman and Saxon sites,later
moats and castleremains,and the evidences
rows. All told, every monument of any
historical or architecturalsignificance be-
fore I850 is inventoried. The detailed sur-
vey is augmented by a generous supply of
maps and plans-of the parishesand village
centers and of the churches and many of
the secularstructuresand earthworks-and
by a largenumber of excellentphotographs
that illustrateall of the significant monu-
a ments as well as points raisedin the intro-
duction.
As indicated above, the greatestdetail is
lavished on the parishchurchesand on the
few larger secularstructures.Of these, the
largest and most detailed attention is given
to Wimpole Hall, where a seventeenth-
century core was enlarged,remodeled, and
redecoratedin the eighteenth century suc-
cessively by James Gibbs, Henry Flitcroft,
and Sir John Soane. If Wimpole Hall is
known at all, it is probably from the inter-
nal work by Soane in the early I790s, but
the contributions of the others, plus such
artistsas SirJames Thornhill, who painted
the chapel, are also highly significant.The
formula utilized in the discussion of this
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
throughout the volume is applicable to
larger and more complex monuments as
well. Each of the parts is, of course, more
extensive and more detailed, but the pat-
tern of investigation and descriptionis the
same. Based on thorough examination of
documents, drawings, and secondary
sources,as well as on-site investigation (all
monuments in the volume were personally
inspected by the staff), it is a detailed his-
torical and architecturalsurvey.
Here, as in the rest of the volume, we see
the thoroughnessand the emphasison ac-
curacy and authenticitythat are, indeed, its
hallmarks.One could quibble with a few
points here and there, as, e.g., the identifi-
cation of the sculptorand woodcarver Sef-
ferin Alken or Alkin asJefferin,but on the
whole the facts are correct and well-docu-
mented. If there are any objections, they
are to the lack of synthesis or summary,
even of individual entries, and to the dry-
ness of the presentation and the colorless
and impersonaltreatment (it is not exactly
bedside reading). But this is, after all, a ref-
erence work, and, as such, like any good
dictionary, it fulfills its purpose admirably.
DAMIE STILLMAN
Universityof Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Carl W. Condit, AmericanBuilding,Ma-
terialsandTechniquesfrom theBeginningof the
ColonialSettlementsto thePresent,Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1968, xiv
+ 329 pp., II2 illus., $Io.
This book is an excellent, concise histori-
cal studyof a field oftechnological develop-
ment which, except for the author's own
work, previously has been quite neglected.
Many volumes have been written about the
sociological and architectural aspects of
Americanbuildings, but the developments
in civil and structuralengineering have re-
mained almost unrecorded. The author,
ProfessorCondit, has producedseveralsig-
nificant works on the development of the
skyscraperand the lengthy two volumes,
AmericanBuildingArt. He is without ques-
tion the outstandingauthorityin this field.
This shorterbook covers quite adequately
and effectively the historicaldevelopment
of construction relating to buildings,
bridges,anddams.The authorshows clearly
the interrelationbetween the development
of bridge structuresand the roof structures
of buildings, and these subjects are well
handled. But the problem of relating the
structuresof waterway control to the other