Since its completion in 1982, the now familiar dancing yellow structure at Swindon has come to stand as an icon, not just for its corporate client, the Renault car manufacturing company, but also for a new alliance of architecture, advanced engineering and craft manufacturing technique.
Chris Abel argues that the Renault Centre marks a turning point both in its architect's career, and in the continuing evolution of the Modern Movement. True to the Movement's social concerns, the building makes a liberal statement on industrial relations. Rejecting any distinctions between white and blue collar workers, Foster's design gathers all employees together under the same striking umbrella roof.
This monograph is a uniquely detailed and authoritative record of the Renault Centre, produced by Chris Abel from the Foster Associates' archives and photographed and drawn under his supervision.
'Architecture In Detail' is a superbly photographed and technically informative series of monographs which embraces a broad spectrum of internationally renowned buildings, drawn predominantly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Each sixty-page volume contains a lucid text by a respected author; a sequence of large-format, high-quality colour and black and white photographs; a comprehensive set of technical drawings and working details; and a complete bibliography and chronology, thus making these books the definitive work on the subject. They are essential purchases for enthusiasts, practitioners and students alike.
