Book contents
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe
- Modern and Contemporary Europe
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume III
- Acknowledgements
- Editors’ Introduction to the Series
- Additional material
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Urban History: The Growth and Internationalisation of an Interdisciplinary Field
- Part I Regions and Global Connections
- Part II Themes
- Index
- References
18 - Architecture’s Urban Dimension: The Paris Opera House, the Soviet Panel Block, the Bilbao Guggenheim and Other Buildings that Make a City
from The Urban Fabric and Environment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2026
Book contents
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe
- Modern and Contemporary Europe
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume III
- Acknowledgements
- Editors’ Introduction to the Series
- Additional material
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Urban History: The Growth and Internationalisation of an Interdisciplinary Field
- Part I Regions and Global Connections
- Part II Themes
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter presents eleven buildings that are connected to important aspects of urban life between 1850 and the present, a period that is characterised by enormous energy wealth based on fossil fuels. These include icons of urban culture, such as the Crystal Palace in London, the Paris Opera House and the Bilbao Guggenheim as well as structures for housing, transport and industrial production, including a Glasgow tenement, a Moscow panel block, London’s St Pancras railway station and the Turbine Factory in Berlin. The chapter will discuss the impact of these buildings: as models for architectural design; as catalysers for urban plans and the politics behind them; and as symbols for radically different forms of modern urban life during nineteenth-century industrialisation, mid-twentieth-century modernisation, and late twentieth-century urban regeneration.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe , pp. 364 - 384Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further Reading
Calder, B., Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency (London, Penguin, 2021).Google Scholar
Frampton, K., Modern Architecture: A Critical History (London, Thames and Hudson, 1980).Google Scholar
James-Chakraborty, K., Architecture since 1400 (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2014), 273–89.10.5749/minnesota/9780816673964.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markus, T. A., Buildings and Power: Freedom and Control in the Origin of Modern Building Types (Abingdon, Routledge, 1993).Google Scholar
McClellan, A., The Art Museum from Boullée to Bilbao (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2008).Google Scholar
Prior, N., Museums and Modernity: Art Galleries and the Making of Modern Culture (Oxford, Berg, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urban, F., Tower and Slab: A Global History of Mass Housing (Abingdon, Routledge, 2012).Google Scholar
Urban, F., The New Tenement: Residences in the Inner City since 1970 (Abingdon, Routledge, 2018).Google Scholar
Urban, F. and B. Calder, Form Follows Fuel – 14 Buildings from Antiquity to the Oil Age (Abingdon: Routledge, 2025).10.4324/9781032637174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Accessibility standard: Inaccessible, or known limited accessibility
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
The HTML of this chapter is known to have missing or limited accessibility features.
We may be reviewing its accessibility for future improvement, but final compliance is
not yet assured and may be subject to legal exceptions. If you have any questions,
please contact
accessibility@cambridge.org.
Content Navigation
Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Reading Order & Textual Equivalents
Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Structural and Technical Features
ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.