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book (design) story #51

alfred roth:
die neue architektur

verlag für architekur ag, erlenbach-zürich (4th edition, 1948), 1940
size: 24 x 29 cm
designer: max bill

just after ww2 had begun, the verlag für architektur (a joint venture of hans girsberger and eugen rentsch) published this overview of modern architecture by alfred roth (1903-1998), a swiss architect who had worked with le corbusier in paris. max bill (1908-1994) designed this important, early example of what was later called "swiss typography". an article by tim bennett in the renowned "architectural review" (vol. 88/1949) called it "a rolls-royce among books. swiss typography is always good, but max bill has excelled himself here" (source: christoph bignens, swiss style, isbn 3905313693). it proved very successful, and many editions were printed.

while the dustjacket reminds of bill's geometric, "concrete art", the raw linen cover is very plain. on the spine, the trilingual title is cleverly abbreviated: "na". this idea was taken up by others – see story 37).

typical for the modern swiss book of the 1940-50s: multicolumn text in three languages. the type is sans-serif, but while max bill used akzidenz-grotesk for the jacket and cover, the inside of the book is in futura – tiny type for text, as often with bill.

for the table of contents bill used round photos of each project, arranged in a grid-like structure. the typographical grid was developed and popularized by swiss graphic designers in the 1940-50s. among the first and most influential manifestations of modern swiss typography were architectural publications – see story 12 and some of the next few.

in every chapter the respective photo is repeated, together with round portraits of the architects.

among the featured projects are the beautiful "doldertal" apartment buildings (by alfred roth, emil roth and marcel breuer) ...

... and the werkbund housing estate "neubühl", both in zurich.

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also max bill is featured as an architect: he designed the swiss exhibition pavillon at the triennale di milano 1936.