Overy, Paul

The author focuses on the “preoccupation with cleanliness, health, hygiene, sunlight, fresh air and openness” which characterised modern architecture between the wars, and his book is divided into sections under the headings of health, home, sun, water, and factory. This provides previously unexplored insights into the architecture of the period and the objectives of some of the major modern movement architects and of their clients (the role of the Dutch industrialist Kees van der Leeuw as a patron of architecture will be unfamiliar).