Skyscrapers

What is a skyscraper? At what height does a building deserve this name? The answers to these questions have varied over time. The history of the skyscraper in the interwar period is essentially merged with that of the avant-garde, of the vertical cities imagined by Sant'Elia, Perret, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. The skyscraper is expressed in the superlative. From the construction of the Old Masonic Temple in Chicago in 1892, the first sacred building to be "the tallest in the world", to the Petronas Towers in 1998, Cesar Pelli's twin towers in Kuala Lumpur (450 m), the Sears Tower in Chicago (443 m) and America's record for the greatest height, the race for the highest, the most beautiful, the most spectacular has continued to fuel the imagination of architects and engineers. This evolution and diversity are expressed here in a panorama of an imaginary metropolis made of skyscrapers that speak of architects, engineers, techniques, sponsors, places and cultures.

22 x 32.5 cm

222 pages

200 black and white and color illustrations

ISBN: 978-2-9092-8318-0

Text in French only