GA Document 1970–1980 Special Issue 1 captures the architectural developments in the turbulent decade of the 1970s. The issue features projects by Alvar Aalto, Louis I Kahn, Mario Botta, James Stirling, Venturi & Rauch, Aldo van Eyck, Piano + Rogers, Aldo Rossi, Hans Hollein, Frank O. Gehry & Associates, Peter Eisenman, Arata Isozaki, Carlo Scarpa, Helmut Jahn and many others. The guest critic is Robert A. M. Stern.
In 1970 architecture was abstract; Content with the presentation of the facts of its own making; the process of building predominant over the symbol intended. Society was in turmoil; young architects calling for an architecture as open and complex as the culture itself. Today, architecture is onwce again not only the matter of syntax but one of symbol – of the representation of ideas not inherent to the building process but fundamental to the building art. The diversity of our expressive modern results in a beautiful cacophony.
— Robert A. M. Stern, Notes on American architecture in the waning of the Petroleum Era. In: GA Document 1970–1980 Special Issue 1, p. 11.
The copy in stock is in nice condition; there’s only some wrinkling on the lower right-hand corner on the cover and the first few pages. The previous owner has stored the issue in a storage, so it has a slight cellar odour.