Peter Behrens and a New Architecture for the Twentieth Century
Industrial Design Modernism Urban Studies Architecture Design History Bauhaus Corporate Identity
Peter Behrens and a New Architecture for the Twentieth Century by Stanford Anderson is the definitive English-language study of the man who turned a small German electrical-goods factory into the birthplace of modern industrial design. At 444 heavily-illustrated pages, this 2000 MIT Press paperback shows how Behrens’ 1909 AEG turbine factory in Berlin launched the steel-and-glass language that would become the International Style, while his corporate graphics, light fixtures, and electric kettles proved that mass production could still be beautiful. Anderson, former head of MIT’s Department of Architecture, reconstructs Behrens’ collaborations with Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier—relationships that make the book a pre-history of the Bauhaus—and explains why every curtain-wall office tower and minimalist corporate logo still bears Behrens’ DNA.
Collectors and students prize this edition for its generous portfolio of period photographs, plans, and product advertisements, many reproduced at full page and carefully keyed to the text. The book’s large 222 mm trim size and crisp offset printing let the technical drawings breathe, while a 30-page reference section supplies original German documents and English translations that are otherwise impossible to find outside specialist archives. Whether you are researching early modernism, preparing a seminar on corporate identity, or hunting for authentic imagery for a restoration project, Anderson’s chronological table of commissions and catalogue raisonné of Behrens’ buildings provide an instant, authoritative shortcut.
This particular copy carries a neat previous-owner inscription on the inside front cover and only light shelf scuffing, leaving the interior pages fresh, unmarked, and free of dog-ears—ideal for graduate study or display. Weighing just over a kilo, the book is substantial enough for the design studio shelf yet still portable for field trips. For anyone who wants to understand how twentieth-century architecture moved from craft workshops to global industry, this affordable, well-preserved used textbook is the fastest route from Behrens’ first factory to the glass skyline outside your window.
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