New Ways: The Founding of Modernism features the rise during the interwar period of a group of engineers, architects, sculptors, ceramicists, artists, furniture-makers, craftsmen and patrons to the forefront of British art and design. Important to the Founding of Modernism was the cooperation between a group of emigre architects and engineers, and their home-grown counterparts who, between them, found ways to bring into being the strict geometric and modernistic forms that were demanded by the Movement. In the 1920s, the technology of concrete casting was developing very rapidly as was that of steel reinforcement and new developments gave rise to greater possibilities for structures. Initially, expertise, and then the promotion of this new technology to architects and their clients, fell to a number of specialist overseas contracting companies. The early decades of the twentieth century in the UK saw, in place of an architect to contractor relationship, a rise of the new profession of consultant structural engineer. Up to this point, architects had fulfilled the role of both building designer and engineer. The British Modern Movement was profoundly influenced by this group of European emigre architects and engineers, some of whom remained in the UK thus ensuring that the Modern Movement re-emerged and continued in the UK once peace returned to Europe after WWII. Through an expert combination of words and illustrations, the author weaves an illuminating tapestry of people and structures in all sectors of life from residential to worship, media to entertainment, commerce and more thus creating a forceful appreciation of the movement. This fertile period of art, architecture and design was typified by a great commonality of purpose between designers, their clients and patrons. Buildings and artefacts were produced such that their designers might appreciate and wish them for their own use, especially in housebuilding and home-making. Friendships and associations by Modernists in allied professions presented a unified approach to design and patronage.

'...His ambition and desire to experiment are without parallel in the last 40 years of structural engineering...Within the pages of this book you'll find yourself enthralled by the effectiveness and originality of his work. Time and again he has brought structures of astounding ingenuity to life. Structural engineers that dream on the scale of Tony Hunt are few and far between'. Extract from Foreword by Sir James Dyson Tony Hunt spent the six decades of his professional and personal life interacting with the elite in the fields of engineering, architecture and industrial design - this is his story. His life and career are described, showing how he formed lasting relationships with architects, patrons, artists, photographers, industrial designers, writers, critics and with his own staff. Connexions demonstrates the way in which he was able to adapt his engineering solutions in collaboration with architects in the formative stages of the design process to find structural solutions sympathetic to their architectural aspirations.It examines the quest for technological advance and Hunt's passion for industrial and product design which led him to favour an industrialized component-based approach to engineering in architecture. He showed an unerring ability to identify and express key components within a design, concentrating on the way they connected together, and demonstrated a practical knowledge and experience of the technology required for their manufacture. The results of Hunt's contribution, and the many prestigious commissions he received, when working with the generation of acclaimed architects emerging from the Architectural Association, the Royal College of Art and from Yale University scholarships in the early period of his career, are well-documented and publicised. Direct comparisons with the great European and American architect engineers such as Richard Buckminster Fuller, Charles Eames, Fritz Haller and Jean Prouve are justifiably made. Connexions also concentrates on the personal and professional relationships that Hunt formed during his career and, by reference to past and contemporary architects, engineers, industrial designers, artists, etc., the place that Tony Hunt occupies in the history of UK design.