HEAVENLY MANSIONS

Essays, studies in architecture, not from the point of view of the technical processes, but the philosophical thought, the social impulses behind architectural developments. Many of Summerson's theories will provide controversy in his profession. His attitude in relation to the Popellan and classical design as basic influence in Gothic; his attitudes on fundamental values as a ground for restoration and preservation of antiquities; his characterisation of the ""ghastly wilderness"" of the last decade; his assault on various groups of ideas rather generally accepted-all of these issues will stir the placid waters. He has chosen in other essays leading lights of architecture, - Alberti, Colonna, Wren, John Wood, J.M. Gandy, Viollet-le-Duo, William Butterfield-and viewed them through anything but orthodox lenses. And he ends with Le Corbusier, and his ""witty, subli-nonsensical approach to architecture"".