New things to read: The Modernist

We’re always on the look-out for cultural things to read. This month: The Modernist

You know how it is. Much as we love all things digital, sometimes nothing beats a great piece of print. And thus we have for a long time lusted over Manchester Modernist Society’s quarterly magazine. Though now onto its sixth issue, we have a soft spot for its Campus edition (we never did lose our love of academia, either).

Title: The Modernist

Publisher: The Modernist Society

Issue no. 5, “Campus”, £4.50

Stockists: Cornerhouse or via http://www.the-modernist-mag.co.uk

Jacket blurb: “a quarterly magazine about twentieth century design”

Why we like it: A beautifully designed homage to modern architecture; a quarterly magazine that comes with a killer combo of black humour and in-depth knowledge of its subject matter, and that puts it all to good use to celebrate the often unloved and ignored bits of our built environment (which, coincidentally, are often concrete kings). Issue 5 includes writing on art in the classroom, the Gulbenkian complex in the heart of Lisbon, Le Corbusier in Cambridge and “the finest women’s institute in this country”, an eclectic mish-mash of essays that loosely coalesce around the theme of the university/educational campus.

Sample quote: “Collision of the generations, as though the whole place is a wedding disco, where your gangly teenage cousin flattens grandma in an unrehearsed celebration of I Wanna Be Adored” – Phil Griffin