In his lavishly illustrated book Total Design: Architecture and interiors of Iconic Modern Houses, George Marcus introduces eighteen stunning houses designed as complete works of art, their structure, furnishings, and landscape fused into a unified whole. From earlier houses by Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, and Gio Ponti to one recently completed by Daniel Libeskind, these works explore the many pathways that architects and designers across the modernist era have followed to achieve this goal.
For his illustrated talk on May 28th, Marcus will recount his experiences in visiting these houses, look back into their history, and in honor of May as National Preservation Month, describe the circumstances under which a number of these important buildings have been preserved.
George H. Marcus, adjunct assistant professor of the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania, is coauthor of the pioneering survey Landmarks of Twentieth-Century Design and The Houses of Louis Kahn. His other publications include Masters of Modern Design, What Is Design Today?, and Le Corbusier: Inside the Machine for Living. For more than thirty years, he served as director of publications and graphic design at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.