Ornament and Class: Modern Architecture & the Rise of the Bourgeoisie

Research monograph.

ISBN 9781032654850

Published March 13, 2025 by Routledge Press

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This book examines the intricate relationship between the rise of the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie and the emergence of modern architecture, exploring this connection through major intellectual and theoretical works while also analyzing their tangible manifestations in buildings and architectural projects.

Contrary to received narratives that describe the birth of modern architecture as primarily an aesthetic movement, Ornament and Class argues that the social and political maturation of the European bourgeoisie as a distinct-yet-heterogeneous group influenced modern attitudes toward architecture at every level. Bringing architecture into conversation with recent histories of the bourgeoisie in the social sciences, the book considers how architecture was used as a tool to separate the modern bourgeoisie from the aristocratic and clerical forces above and the working classes below. It explores how architects, clients, planners, and administrators grappled with and dealt with ornament, architecture, and modernity from within the new realities of urban and global capitalism, and shows how these realities serve as pedagogical touchstones that remain with us today.