Martienssen, Rex Distin

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Martienssen, Rex Distin (1905–42). South African pioneer of International Modernism, who quoted liberally from the works of Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe. He published numerous articles in the South African Architectural Record (1931–3). His buildings include the Stern House, Houghton, Johannesburg (1934–5), and the Martienssen House, Greenside, Johannesburg (1939–40). In 1956 his The Idea of Space in Greek Architecture: with Special Reference to the Doric Temple and its Setting was published, a book that seems to have influenced American writers, notably Vincent Scully in The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods (1979—revised from 1962 edn.).

Bibliography

Architectural Association, ix/2–3 (1977);
Kalman (1994);
South African Architectural Review, ii (1942), whole issue