By Peter Wilson

The original bald and unconvincing narrative that triggered this book is that put about by Alison and Peter Smithson in their 1981 Heroic Period of Modern Architecture, limiting modernism to 1915–1929. This fiction is re-contextualised with studies of iconic Bauhaus bald heads – Schlemmer, Itten, etc., such Literal Baldness is the subject of Part 1.

Part 2 of Phenomenal Baldness unwinds the Bauhaus narrative put about by Walter Gropius, one that has held water for 100 years. Spin doctor Gropius manipulated his Bauhaus successes into a cornerstone of post WW2 modernism. Cracks in this story are now emerging along with the fact that Gropius was in hindsight, not a very good architect. Attacks on the Bauhaus like those by Rudolph Schwartz or Tom Wolf as well as a comprehensive list of Gropius hand-holders, and those edited out of his narrative are here explored. To conclude Gropius is compared to his contemporary Bruno Taut, a far more interesting and talented architect.

This book, like Peter Wilson’s previous titles Bedtime Stories for Architects or Some Reasons for Traveling to Italy, is written in his unique anecdotal style, savouring Shandyisms and the quirks of history.