Accommodating Life

About the Book

From Accommodating Life, “The accommodation of human beings within created space is the true concern of any well-conceived built environment. “In architecture, the term ‘modern’ means an architecture that is acutely responsive to the demands of current accommodation while utilizing the most advanced techniques available in order to achieve an apt expression of its particular ‘now.’ In other words, modern architecture, in each era, means an architecture devoted to accommodating life. “In recent decades, an architecture of true relevance to life concerns has been conspicuously absent as a cultural force. In its stead, a succession of design initiatives divorced from their social moorings, dedicated primarily to image and motivated as much by subjective whim or the dictates of fashion as by any direct response to human need, has long been dominating the determination of the human habitat. “It is vitally important that we consider where we are and how we got here and make an attempt to point the way toward a new ‘modern’ architecture, an architecture that enhances existence, an architecture that encompassing both use and beauty and accommodates and enhances life” (Martin Bloom).

About the Author

Martin Bloom (1927-2017), architect and urban designer, maintained an independent practice in New York City specializing in cultural projects – with emphasis on facilities for the performing arts. Among other projects, he designed the Theater in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, the Midtown Theater Museum for the Museum of the City of New York, the Penguin Repertory Theatre in Stony Point, NY and other spaces for performance. His highly-acclaimed book, ACCOMMODATING THE LIVELY ARTS, dedicated to analyzing and creating spaces for the performing arts, has been praised for its unusual insight into the challenges of theatrical presentation. His essays and articles have been published in The Journal of the American Institute of Architects and its successor, Architect. Born in Malden, Massachusetts, Bloom graduated from Tufts University and received a Master in Architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. After attending the École des Beaux Arts at Fontainebleau (where he later taught), he worked in Paris, Boston and Cambridge before moving to New York. He was married to Ruth Wolff, playwright and screenwriter. Their son, Evan T. Bloom, is Director of Ocean and Polar Affairs at the United States State Department.