Gottfried Semper (1803-1879) left behind a voluminous legacy of architectural-theory writings.
The manner in his works in which he analysed architecture from a cultural-historical
perspective as the key discipline in human artistry continues to exert a deep fascination up
until today. The London Writings make available previously unpublished or little-known texts
originating during Semper's exile in London (1850-1855) in a critical and commented edition
including in their original wordings. Swayed by his impressions of the first Great Exhibition
of 1851 and as a lecturer at the Department of Practical Art it was in London that Semper laid
the foundations for his theoretical magnum opus Der Stil (Style 1860 63). He counterpoised the
phenomena of the globalised flow of merchandise and a globalisation of knowledge that he
observed with his thoughts on the global development of architectural culture in all its
manifold material social and political conditions. The edition is the outcome of a joint SNSF
research project between the Institute for History and Theory of Art and Architecture (ISA) at
the Università della Svizzera italiana and the Institute for the History and Theory of
Architecture (gta) at ETH Zurich.
