Competing Visions

In this first comparative study of the architecture of the countries that defined the Austro-Hungarian monarchy from 1867 to 1918, Akos Moravanszky discusses the aesthetic innovations of Central European architects and the role that architecture played in the development of modern culture. By studying the crucial debates about modernity, national identity, tectonic from, and the social role of the architect, Moravanszky does justice to a story of enormous cultural complexity, rather than viewing architectural history as a linear story of buildings leading to a monolithic modern form. This book unfolds the wide spectrum of problems that Central European artists and architects faced in the first decades of the century in such centers as Budapest, Prague, Brno, Vienna, Cracow, Zagreb, and Ljubljana. It also examines the changing interpretation of architecture by the critics of the time.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.