It will enable making a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. ‘Patterns,’ the units of this language, are answers to design problems: how high should a window sill be?; how many stories should a building have?; how much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?More than 250 of the patterns in this language are outlined, each consisting of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seems likely that they will be a part of human nature and human action as much in five hundred years as they are today.A Pattern Language is related to Alexander’s other works in the Center for Environmental Structure series: The Timeless Way of Building (introductory volume) and The Oregon Experiment.

    What could be more perfect for an author/illustrator who has continually stripped away the mystique of architectural structures that have long fascinated modern man? With typical zest and wry sense of humor punctuating his drawings, David Macaulay traces the step-by-step planning and construction of both castle and town.

    Such an account of the human needs met by architecture remains sadly incomplete unless the expressive visual qualities of buildings are recognized as among their foremost effects.A fresh approach is overdue—an attempt to analyze these psychological qualities with the principles of visual perception. Such an attempt is made in this new volume by Rudolf Arnheim, who has been known, since the publication of his Art and Visual Perception, as an authority on the psychological interpretation of the visual arts. As he now turns his experienced eye to the visual aspects of buildings, he amplifies his theories with new features specific to the medium of the architect. Arnheim explores the unexpected perceptual consequences of architecture with his customary clarity and precision. Of particular interest is his thorough analysis of order and disorder in design, the nature of visual symbolism, and the relations between practical function and perceptual expression.Arheim's ability to deal with theoretical principles in a concrete and easily accessible way assures him the attention of the general reader whose concern with the arts leads to the aesthetic and psychological aspects of the broader environment. At the same time, Arnheim's strikingly original approach will stimulate professionals and students concerned with the theory and practice of modern and historical architecture.

    The result is a remarkable synthesis, which reflects well the subtleties of experience and yet avoids the pitfalls of arbitrary classification and facile generalization. For these reasons, and for its general tone and erudition and humanism, this book will surely be one that will endure when the current flurry of academic interest in environmental experience abates.” Canadian Geographer

    An in-depth study of moving works of art from various European countries exposes the sensual beauty of these objects as well as their allegorical representation of religious beliefs. Black-and-white and color photos. 11" x 12 1/2".

    In each case Rudofsky brings to his subject a singular blend of erudition, wit, and insight that makes the exotic seem logical and the commonplace bizarre.In his extensive travels over the better part of a century, the author has found universal evidence of man’s irrepressible impulse to reveal, through what he builds, his multifaceted nature – and of modern society’s equally compulsive tendency to subvert it.Rudofsky’s cogent arguments are amply documented with over 100 of his unparalleled photographs, in addition to many more rare engravings and other illustrations. The total effect is to expand far beyond dictionary definitions our concepts of both architecture and the human spirit.

    

    The buildings of Robert Venturi and Michael Graves, among others, are featured.

    Drawing on examples from Greek and Roman models to Renaissance and baroque theatres to contemporary buildings around the world, it discusses such requirements as structural systems, seating, acoustics and visual volume in detail, considering the optimum conditions for both musical and dramatic performance. This edition includes, as an appendix, a new set of drawings, in addition to the original 900 illustrations.

    Schapiro applies evidencefrom numerous sources, such as literature, folklore, and politicalhistory, to reconstruct and interpret this rich artistic period.

    The papers are divided into three sections that examine Chinese cities in the context of history, spacial structure, and urban social structure. This digital edition was derived from ACLS Humanities E-Book's (http: //www.humanitiesebook.org) online version of the same title.

    A study of the architectural style that dominated European buildings for more than four hundred years examines the constructional and aesthetic characteristics of the most magnificent creations.

    Kahn, whose ideas are preserved in the wealth of sketches he did whenever developing new concepts or working out details for new building projects. Sketches and plans of different developmental stages of his projects are laid out in a basically chronological order and these are complemented by relevant extracts from his writings and speeches and by his commentary while this documentation was being prepared in 1973 - the year before his death. As in the first edition, the authors aim has not been to interpret or evaluate. Rather, they wish to provide the scholar with a solid base for further research, allowing him to follow the traces of a remarkably creative mind that revered architecture as a manifestation of manAs spirit.

    

    This book, "The habitations of man in all ages," by Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Benjamin Bucknall, is a replication of a book originally published before 1876. It has been restored by human beings, page by page, so that you may enjoy it in a form as close to the original as possible.

    

    The book is a lesson in seeing and sensing the manifold forms created by the mind for its own pleasure.Like all of Robert Harbison's works, Eccentric Spaces is a hybrid, informed by the author's interests in art, architecture, fiction, poetry, landscape, geography, history, and philosophy. The subject is the human imagination--and the mysterious interplay between the imagination and the spaces it has made for itself to live in: gardens, rooms, buildings, streets, museums and maps, fictional topographies, and architectures. The book is a lesson in seeing and sensing the manifold forms created by the mind for its own pleasure.Palaces and haunted houses, Victorian parlors, Renaissance sculpture gardens, factories, hill-towns, ruins, cities, even novels and paintings constructed around such environments--these are the spaces over which the author broods. Brilliantly learned, deliberately remote in form from conventional scholarship, Eccentric Spaces is a magical book, an intellectual adventure, a celebration.Since its original publication in 1977, Eccentric Spaces has had a devoted readership. Now it is available to be discovered by a new generation of readers.

    Such truisms as 'form follows function', 'the open plan,' and 'purity of design' are exposed as volatile ideas. The intricately planned, artistically designed components of the Ideal City have divided urban areas into tidy ghettos of culture, education, business, residence...even pornography...alienating individuals and threatening not only the economic futures of our cities, but civilized aspects of life in the West as well.This book calls for the slaughtering of the sacred cows of the Modern Movement, for a moratorium on the destruction of existing buildings and historic landmarks, and for an end to the construction of skyscrapers, new highways in developed nations, and single-use zoning. Blake demands legislation to hold building industries responsible for performance of their products, and a restructuring for performance of their products, and a restructuring of architectural education into something more basic and more human.

    New color photography throughout highlights their furniture and lighting designs, as well as their classic bungalow-style exteriors. The book also includes some important archival images and plans.This is a must-have addition to every architectural library.

    With 214 photographs, it allows readers to associate real buildings with architectural styles, elements and orders. Identifying American Architecture was designed to be used carried about and kept handy for frequent reference. Every photograph is keyed to an explanatory legend pointing out characteristic features of each building's style.

    It also includes additions made by Laugier for the edition of 1755 as well as the Avertissement for that edition, which contains Laugier's rebuttal to his critics. An introduction by Wolfgang Herrmann gives details of Laugier's life and the context in which this book was written. The Essai is important as a key document in 18th century art theory. It is invaluable for a thorough understanding of the Neoclassical aesthetic and its development from the rationalism of the Enlightenment.

    

    

    Peregrine

    It features projects that were designed to be built but never were; others that were partially realized or ultimately changed beyond recognition; and projects that were purely theoretical and never intended to be built. The designs range from Thomas Jefferson's anonymous submission for the 'President's Palace' competition to 'A Fairly Tall Tower' (48,000 miles high), to a proposed restoration of King Solomon's Temple (destroyed, 70 A.D.) ... this time to be erected in Philadelphia. The arrangement of the designs is alphabetical by architect, and there are contributions by such notables as Philip Johnson, Louis Kahn, Buckminster Fuller, H.H. Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Paolo Soleri, Bruce Goff, Christo, Isamu Noguchi, Robert Venturi, and Claes Oldenburg.'"Unbuilt America' provides an extraordinary glimpse both backward and forward in time, which will be fascinatingeven to the layman.

    Ferguson. New York: University Of Oklahoma Press, 1977. First Edition. 246 pages. Hardcover w/Jacket. Solid copy, moderate wear