Tatra The Legacy Of Hans Ledwinka

Hans Ledwinka’s innovative Tatra cars were models of design excellence, and were highly influential in shaping modern car design concepts and the development of the Volkswagen. This book places Ledwinka in his well-deserved place amongst the great car designers. This enlarged 2nd edition contains updated material and additional illustrations.

Tatra – The Legacy of Hans Ledwinka is the story of the Tatra company, which originated in the Central European country of Czechoslovakia. It is a tale of great innovation and avant-garde design in automobile engineering. It is also the story of one man – Hans Ledwinka – and his visionary concepts which have become highly influential, although often undervalued, contributions to the development of car technology. Until now, Hans Ledwinka's talent has hardly been recognised; in retrospect, he can be judged equal to car designers such as Benz, Daimler and Porsche, whose endeavours have been fully recorded many times over. With his revolutionary Tatra cars, Ledwinka consistently pushed back the frontiers of automobile construction, and it’s certain that without his inspiration, the Volkswagen in its air-cooled rear-engined form would perhaps never have been conceived. This book suggests that Ledwinka played a greater part in this development than has previously been appreciated. The authors have covered the full history of the Tatra company, which is one of the oldest factories in continuous automobile manufacture, dating back to the 19th century. By doing this, they have placed both Ledwinka and the Czechoslovak Tatra company in their rightful place in the history of car design, and provided a fully comprehensive assessment of the influence of Tatra car designs and their inspired creator. The text of this larger format 2nd edition has been fully revised and updated since the 1990 edition. This new edition also contains many additional illustrations. The book also has a new foreword, written by Norman Foster, the British architect, and proud owner of a Tatra T87, who pays tribute to the aesthetic qualities of this design classic and captures the fascination of both designers and motor historians with the development of Tatra.

It may seem extraordinary that architects - designers of stationary objects - should concern themselves with automobile design; but the automobile has long touched architects' imaginations, appearing to them as a house on wheels, as mobile accommodation. When the motor-driven vehicle was invented, architects recognised that its image, form and function would affect the quality of people's lives and their surroundings, and that to propose an automobile was a way to perfect the synthesis of art, design and the latest technology. A number of well-known architects liked to pair the architecture of their houses with their favourite automobiles in order to illustrate the close functional and aesthetic relationship between them. Some believed that their cars had to 'look becoming to' their architecture, and included automobiles in perspective views and photographs of their completed buildings, the result being a harmonising composition of the two elements that stressed their close affinity. The celebrated 'Ten Automobiles' exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1953, with its proclamation that 'automobiles are twentieth-century artefacts', brought into focus the automobile as an influential design object. Architects realised the importance of the automobile as anicon of an era and sought not only to design motorcars but to apply the principles of automotive technology and design to their architecture. This book explores automotive design by leading architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Adolf Loos, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Gio Ponti, Carlo Mollino, Norman Foster, Jan Kaplicky and others and its influence on their architecture.

Reflections of Prague is the story of how a Czech Jewish family become embroiled in the most tragic and tumultuous episodes of the twentieth century. Through their eyes we see the history of their beloved Prague, a unique European city, and the wider, political forces that tear their lives apart. Their moving story traces the major events, turmoil, oppression and triumphs of Europe through the last hundred years – from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the First World War; from the vibrant artistic and intellectual life of Prague in the times of Kafka, the Capek Brothers and Masaryk to years of hunger in a Polish ghetto and the concentration camps of Hitler; from the tyrannous rule of Stalin to the rekindled hopes of Dubcek and the subsequent Soviet occupation to liberation under Havel. Told from Ivan’s perspective, it is a poignant but uplifting tale that tells of life lived with purpose and conviction, in the face of personal suffering and sacrifice. ‘A remarkable book. This archetypical story of the twentieth century is intertwined with an almost stream-of-consciousness narrative of the history of the Czechs, of Prague, interspersed with samples of exquisite poetry by great contemporary poets. So the narrative flows like Eliot’s sweet Thames full of the debris of tragic lives, of horrors, of moments of beauty and testimonies of love – all against the backdrop of man’s inhumanity.’ Josef Škvorecký ‘A poignant and vivid mémoire of a child searching for traces of his father, lost in the murky ideologies of post war Central Europe. An engrossing book.’ Sir John Tusa

This book applauds the union of architecture and engineering both today and throughout the history of building and construction. The relationship between the two fields is multifaceted. Some architects may have had an engineering background, and some engineers have experience of architecture. Some unacknowledged engineers have stood modestly behind great architects, and a number of architects have been encouraged and supported by their engineer-collaborators in designing structures that appear to defy gravity. Architects + Engineers = Structures focuses on the ideal: on a cohesive building design team where the members contribute equally, resulting in unique and exceptional designs. These are architects and engineers who entice beauty into buildings not just with lines on paper and calculations but with intuition, innovation and feeling for the needs of people, materials, strength, proportion, lightness and elegance. Structures featured include: * dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence * Church of the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona * Eiffel Tower, Paris * Sydney Opera House, Sydney * Marina City, Chicago * Olympic Swimming Pool Arena, Tokyo * London Eye, London * many other international examples, both celebrated and less well-known "This subject is very important, and I hope the book will attract the attention of many architects and engineers." Professor Mamoru Kawaguchi Also by Ivan Margolius: Automobiles by Architects, Wiley-Academy, ISBN 047160786X "How rare it is to put down a book with the sense of pleasure satisfied, the mind excited by ideas and information, nostalgia stimulated, the eye amused by illustrations." Brian Sewell, The Spectator "Superbly entertaining book." Edwin Heathcote, The Architects' Journal "This is an enjoyable read." Building Design "Excellent book." FX Magazine "Purchasers are likely to have something unique on their bookshelves." The Automobile "A pleasant surprise is the density and clarity of the text, usefully accompanied by a wealth and diversity of iconography." L'Architecture d'aujourd'hui

Goodwood is a small, very special piece of land in the British county of West Sussex, where fans of old bodyworks and vintage style lovers come together every year for the most spectacular events. Highlights definitely include the Festival of Speed, which is world-famous for its sensational shows of historic racing cars, and the Revival Meeting. 'Goodwood' shows portraits of all three vintage car events with racing driver legends, as well as the history and characteristics of Goodwood, the race track and the surroundings. Text in English and German. 200 colour

An Introduction to Modern Vehicle Design starts from basic principles and builds up analysis procedures for all major aspects of vehicle and component design. Subjects of current interest to the motor industry - such as failure prevention, designing with modern material, ergonomics, and control systems - are covered in detail, with a final chapter discussing future trends in automotive design. Extensive use of illustrations, examples, and case studies provides the reader with a thorough understanding of design issues and analysis methods.