Detlef Mertins

Biography

B.Arch., University of Toronto
Ph.D. in Architecture, Princeton University

Teaches architectural history, theory and supervises doctoral research. Taught at the University of Toronto (1991–2003) and as a visiting professor at Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University and Rice University. Held the Canada Research Chair in Architecture (2001-2003), the Konrad Adenauer Research Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Royal Canadian Society (2003), and a Visiting Scholar Fellowship at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (1998). Books include the English edition of Walter Curt Behrendt, The Victory of the New Building Style, The Presence of Mies, and Metropolitan Mutations: The Architecture of Emerging Public Spaces.

Numerous essays in scholarly journals and anthologies, as well as critical writings on contemporary architecture. Most recent essays include "The Modernity of Zaha Hadid" in the exhibition catalogue Zaha Hadid (Guggenheim Museum), "Mies's Event Space" in Grey Room 20, "Bioconstructivism" in Lars Spuybroek's NOX: Machining Architecture, "Same Difference" in Foreign Office Architects' Phylogenesis: FOA's Ark, and "Interview with Natalie de Blois" in SOM Journal 4. Research focuses on the history and theory of modernism in architecture, art, philosophy, and urbanism.

To access articles written by Mertins available through UPenn's Scholarly Commons, please link to http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/query.cgi?field_1=lname&value_1=Mertins&...