Auguste Perret

French architect Auguste Perret (1874-1954) was a pioneering precursor to the Modern Movement, defining the agenda for a new architecture for the twentieth century. His career is inextricably linked to the constructional technique of reinforced concrete framework: in works such as his apartment building in rue Franklin, Paris, of 1903, concrete -- a material that previously had been perceived as common and industrial -- was reinvented, handled artistically and given its own idiom. Le Corbusier described this building as 'a foretaste of the modern world'.

In 1905 Perret created, with his two brothers Gustave and Claude, an architecture office and construction firm. Through buildings such as the Musee des Travaux Publics in Paris, the Church of Notre Dame at Raincy and many other domestic, industrial and urban projects, Perret caught the attention of a younger generation searching for a new architecture appropriate to the twentieth century. Yet, while a committed constructor and innovator, Perret adhered throughout his career to classicist principles, always resisting the more transitory aspects of the avant-grade.

This monograph is the first sustained study of Perret in English, richly illustrated with colour photography as well as drawings and photographs from the Perret archive. It also features an appendix of Perret's writing on architecture, including his published text Contribution to a Theory of Architecture, which provides an insight into the forces behind his craft and its artistic and social principles.