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This book addresses the work of architect John Dalton (1927-2007), an important voice in mid-century modernism in Australia whose work, despite his being exhibited and published internationally and also winning several awards for his designs, is woefully little known.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the book draws on previously unpublished archival documents, including Dalton's drawings and paintings, transcripts of lectures, letters and articles, plans and photographic images of built works, to characterize the architect not only as a very talented designer, but also as a pioneer of environmentalist thinking in Australia.The book reveals how Dalton's architectural preoccupations parallel a transition in mid-century modern architecture globally from functional efficiency and material rationalism, to a concern with being in dialogue with the environment, confirming a wider 'environmental turn' that involved the integration of environmental with cultural considerations through relational thinking, and which preceded and transcends the discipline's fascination with theoretical paradigms such as Critical Regionalism. John Dalton: Subtropical Modernism and the Turn to Environment in Australian Architecture is thus not only an important contribution to the existing scholarship on 20th century modernism, but also to the current renewed interest in environmental design across the globe.

Fleeing Europe in 1939 for the Australian state of Queensland, the architect Karl Langer (1903-1969) found himself positioned at the very edge of both European and Australian modernism. Confronted by tropical heat and glare, the economics of affordable housing, fiercely proud regional architectural practices, and a suspicion of the foreign, Langer moulded the European language of international modernism to the unique climatic and social conditions of tropical Australia.Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book is both an examination of Langer's work and international legacy, and also a case study in tropical modernism and the trans-global dissemination of design ideas - revealing how Langer sought to reconcile his training in international modernism with a fascination for the formal and visual languages of a regional culture, context, and climate.