Material Theories

Material Theories takes a radically new approach to well-established thinking on nineteenth-century architecture and design by investigating Gottfried Semper's classic ideas about dressing, metamorphosis of material, and cultural development, culminating in his two-volume publication Style.

Elena Chestnova is a researcher at the Institute for History and Theory of Art and Architecture of the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland. She has completed her PhD dissertation in Mendrisio after studying architecture at the University of Cambridge and the ETH Zurich.

1.Acknowledgements 2.Introduction 3.Biographical Background 4.Outline of the book Chapter 1 - Analysis and experience: artefacts in archaeology and cultural history Chapter 2 - Speaking artefacts and reconstructions of the past Chapter 3 - Domestic space and the theory of decorative things Chapter 4 - Interiors and the education of taste Chapter 5 - Commodity and the Great Exhibition Chapter 6 - Artefacts and bodies Epilogue Bibliography Index