Changing the Art of Inhabitation

This book comprises edited essays, notes and letters spanning thirty years -- many previously unpublished -- richly illustrated with documentary drawings and photographs. The theme of the collection, developed through the Smithsons' reactions to the work of Mies van der Rohe and Charles and Ray Eames, is the influence across generations of architects, transforming over time the way the 'art of inhabitation' is practiced. The influence of Mies on the Smithsons' work is widely recognised; perhaps more surprising is the profound and subtle influence of the Eames' work on the Brutalist Smithsons. The book presents a fascinatingly intimate account of the way Mies and the Eames revolutionised architecture and design, as felt by two articulate and thoughtful practitioners, rather than the views of cultural historians.