Fleeing Europe in 1939 for the Australian state of Queensland, the architect Karl Langer (1903-1969) found himself positioned at the very edge of both European and Australian modernism.

Confronted by tropical heat and glare, the economics of affordable housing, fiercely proud regional architectural practices, and a suspicion of the foreign, Langer moulded the European language of international modernism to the unique climatic and social conditions of tropical Australia.

Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book is both an examination of Langer's work and international legacy, and also a case study in tropical modernism and the trans-global dissemination of design ideas – revealing how Langer sought to reconcile his training in international modernism with a fascination for the formal and visual languages of a regional culture, context, and climate.

Deborah van der Plaat is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School of Architecture, the University of Queensland, Australia.

John Macarthur is Professor of Architecture and Director of Research in the School of Architecture, the University of Queensland, Australia.