Detailed book review, subject could also be French Architecture Richard A. Etlin, Symbolic Space: French Enlightenment Architecture and Its Legacy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994; xxv + 198 pp.; 113 ills.         Richard Etlin, in his study, Symbolic Space: French Enlightenment Architecture and Its Legacy, offers his insight into the integral relationship architecture has within the activities of man. Politics, science, social organization, and religion, all have spaces unique to their own functional character. Beyond a functional character, …showed first 75 words of 1910 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1910 total…how modern design follows the emotional patter of the past, we must question the validity of modern design. Are these buildings, built in the twentieth century, truly modern? What about the sterile and cold "modern" buildings, encased in glass and steel? Are these able to generate emotion in the same way as their neo-classical ancestors? After reading this book, it will be impossible to judge modern architecture without these considerations their relationship to the past.