Bernard Rudofsky

Rudofsky worked between 1905 and 1988 across architect and general contractor. This article rests on 10 published texts and 28 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Bernard Rudofsky • Born — April 1905 • Birthplace — Suchdol nad Odrou, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian Empire • Died — March 12, 1988 • Illustration — Villa in Positano

• Are Clothes Modern? (1947) • Behind the Picture Window (1955) • Japan: Book Design Yesterday (1962) • Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-pedigreed Architecture (1964) • The Kimono Mind: An Informal Guide to Japan and the Japanese (Charles E. Tuttle, 1965) • Streets for People: A Primer for Americans (1969) • The Unfashionable Human Body (1971) • The Prodigious Builders: Notes Toward a Natural History of Architecture with Special Regard to those Species that are Traditionally Neglected or Downright Ignored (1977) • Now I Lay Me Down to Eat: Notes and Footnotes on the Lost Art of Living (1980) • Sparta/Sybaris (1987), edited by Peter Noever/MAK

• Sparta/Sybaris. Keine neue Bauweise. Eine neue Lebensweise tut not. curated by Peter Noever/MAK, 1987/88

Bernard Rudofsky is recorded with the occupation general contractor. Recorded as a citizen of United States. Established in Bibliothèque nationale de France under 14632228s. Established in Library of Congress under n50022453. Established in RKDartists under 323983. Established in FAST under 1433654. Recognition and collections. Rudofsky received City of Vienna Prize for Architecture and Guggenheim Fellowship.

In Architecture without Architects Rudofsky states that "Architectural History, as written and taught in the Western World, has never been concerned with more than a few select cultures." He attempts to break down our limited idea of this field and briefly introduce the reader to the vast and wise world of 'nonpedigreed architecture' (vernacular, indigenous, and often anonymous). The lessons taught in this world are highly useful to mankind, especially relating to the environmental crisis the world now faces. Another notable work, Now I Lay Me Down to Eat is an entertaining tour of historical and cultural alternatives to the design problems of everyday life—dining, sleeping, sitting, cleansing, and bathing—and was "neither meant to spread dangerous heresies nor to undermine our birthright to make the worst of possible choices. Rather, it demonstrates by means of random examples that life can be less dull than we make it." By contrasting current western design solutions with earlier practices, he makes our current "solutions" look open to improvement, if not outright ridiculous and arbitrary. For instance, he asks why the standard American-style toilet is effectively a septic humidifier, and why American-style bathtubs are impossible for adults to lie down in and are as a matter of routine permanently fixed two or three feet away from a septic humidifier. In 1944 Rudofsky and his wife Berta were invited to Black Mountain College for two weeks. Bernard gave two lectures on the sad state of clothing design, calling contemporary dress "anachronistic, irrational, impractical and harmful" and literally unsuitable. One of his lectures was called "How Can People Expect to Have Good Architecture When They Wear Such Clothes?". Berta was convinced to organize an impromptu course on sandalmaking. Berta was invited back the following year, and their successful venture Bernardo Sandals was organized in 1947 and still thrives. In 1986, the architecture magazine "UMRISS" dedicated a special issue (1/86) to Bernard Rudofsky under the title "Return to living" / "Umkehr zum Wohnen" in addition to a comprehensive presentation of Rudofsky's key architecture projects.

• Bernard Rudofsky: A Humane Designer (2003), Guarneri, Andrea Bocco, Springer-Verlag, Wien, • Lessons from Bernard Rudofsky: Life As A Voyage (2007), edited by Platzer, Monika, Birkhauser Verlag AG, Basel, Switzerland, • Bernard Rudofsky Architect (2016), Rossi, Ugo, Clean Edizioni, Napoli,