Anthony Vidler (1941–2023) was an English architectural historian, critic, and educator known for his scholarship on architectural theory, modernism, and the Enlightenment. His work examined architecture’s intersection with philosophy and social reform, making him a leading figure in architectural history.
Born in Mere, Wiltshire, England, Vidler studied at Emmanuel College-Cambridge, earning a B.A. and Dipl.Arch., followed by a PhD from the Technical University Delft. He began his academic career at Princeton University in 1965, later teaching at University of California-Los Angeles, Cornell University, The Cooper Union, Brown University, and Yale University. He served as Dean of The Cooper Union’s School of Architecture (2001–13.)
Vidler’s notable publications include The Writing of the Walls: Architectural Theory in the Late Enlightenment (1987,) examining 18th-century architectural thought, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux: Architecture and Social Reform at the End of the Ancien Régime (1990,) exploring Ledoux’s utopian designs, and The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely (1992,) discussing modernist architectural anxieties. Other works include Warped Space: Art, Architecture, and Anxiety in Modern Culture (2000) and Histories of the Immediate Present: Inventing Architectural Modernism (2008.)
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Up until now, we have done little but complain. Until now, we have stood by, watching native habitat disappear, and with it wildlife of all types. Instead of doing something, we have come to accept our present situation as inevitable and tolerable.
—Anthony Vidler
Topics: Wildlife
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