With Building in France, Building in Iron, Building in Ferroconcretre (1928)—published now for the first time in English—Sigfried Giedion positioned himself as an eloquent advocate of modern architecture. This was the first book to exalt Le Corbusier as the artistic champion of the new movement. It also spelled out many of the tenets of Modernism that are now regarded as myths, among them the impoverishment of nineteenth-century architectural thinking and practice, the contrasting vigor of engineering innovations, and the notion of Modernism as technologically preordained.

• Preface
• Introduction, Sokratis Georgiadis
• Building in France, Building in Iron, Building in Ferroconcrete, Sigfried Giedion
  • Introduction
    • Construction
    • Industry
    • Architecture
    • Constructor and Architect
    • Constructors
    • The Nineteenth Century
    • The Nineteenth Century in France
  • Iron
    • 1800–1850 First Attempts
      • First Formation
    • 1850–1890 Experimental Architecture
      • Exhibitions
      • Exhibitions of World Commerce
      • Further Development
  • Ferroconcrete
    • National Constants
    • 1900–1920 A. G. Perret
      • Tony Garnier
    • 1920–1927 Le Corbusier and the Younger Generation
    • The Current Status of Ferroconcrete
• Appendix
• Illustration Credits
• Sigfried Giedion: A Biographical Sketch
• Index

Sigfried Giedion (1888–1968) was a Swiss architecture critic and historian.

Sokratis Georgiadis, formerly curator of the Sigfried Giedion Archive at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zurich, is currently professor of architectural and design history at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Stuttgart. He is the author of Sigfried Giedion: An Intellectual Biography.

J. Duncan Berry has taught art and architectural history at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design.