Before a New Architecture: Frederick Etchells and the Emergence of Architectural Modernity in Britain, from W.R. Lethaby to Le Corbusier

Abstract

This article addresses the ways in which the writings of Le Corbusier interacted with modernist architectural thought in Britain. It focusses on Frederick Etchells, who translated Vers une architecture in 1927, and analyses key influences upon his intellectual development and approach to design, namely Roger Fry, Wyndham Lewis, W.R. Lethaby, Christopher Hussey, and John Rodker. It suggests that dedicated study of Etchells as a connective figure in this network aids our understanding of modernism's fraught integration into British culture; that architectural ideas are central to vorticism's engagement with the artist's relationship to society; and that Fry and Lewis deserve recognition for establishing a mature conception of architectural modernity in Britain, alongside Le Corbusier.