What designers can learn from a misunderstood modernist

Paul Rudolph, a modernist architect, was born in 1917 and died in 1997. He studied at Auburn University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and his early work in Florida led to the development of the Sarasota modern style. Rudolph's career was marked by his innovative use of materials and his ability to design a wide range of structures, from affordable housing to government buildings. Despite his initial success, Rudolph fell out of favor in the late 1960s as postmodernism gained popularity, and his work was criticized for its perceived coldness and lack of human scale. In recent years, however, there has been a renewed appreciation for Rudolph's work, including a 2010 show at the Cooper Union and a photography book featuring his homes before they were demolished. The current exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Materialized Space: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph, showcases his intricate hand drawings, which are held at the Library of Congress and have not been publicly exhibited before. These drawings, which Rudolph always did himself, are a testament to his meticulousness and dedication to his craft, and they serve as a reminder of the importance of physical media in architectural representation.