What should our buildings look like? Or is their usability more important than their appearance? Paul Guyer argues that the fundamental goals of architecture first identified by the Roman architect Marcus Pollio Vitruvius - good construction, functionality, and aesthetic appeal - have remained valid despite constant changes in human activities, building materials and technologies, as well as in artistic styles and cultures. Guyer discusses philosophers and architects throughout history, including Alberti, Kant, Ruskin, Wright, and Loos, and surveys the ways in which their ideas are brought to life in buildings across the world. He also considers the works and words of contemporary architects including Annabelle Selldorf, Herzog and de Meuron, and Steven Holl, and shows that - despite changing times and fashions - good architecture continues to be something worth striving for. This new series offers short and personal perspectives by expert thinkers on topics that we all encounter in our everyday lives.

Teatru Manoel is a historical monument of global importance and a living temple of the performing arts. Built in 1731 by order of Grand Master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena, whose name it still bears, it remains today one of the finest examples of theatre architecture in Europe. Named as one of the 15 most beautiful theatres by CNN in May 2014, the Manoel is also one of the oldest `working' theatres in the world and is Malta's national theatre. As incumbent custodians of this priceless gem, it is our responsibility not only to preserve and enhance it but also to sustain its relevance for the present and above all, the future. This book aims to present the many other facets that make up the institution that is the Manoel. First and foremost there is the theatre's role in the cultural environment of Malta as well as Europe. Secondly, there is the rich and chequered history of this 283-year-old building which has survived plagues, invasions, blockades, stiff competition, wars and economic downturns with a detailed account of the changes it has undergone both to its architecture and internal decor. Thirdly, and of no less importance, are the thousands of artistic productions that have involved great, renowned and not-so-renowned artists from every performing arts genre that have, over the centuries, graced its stage. Furthermore, this book, which covers the history, the architectural changes, the performers and performances over so many decades to date, ensures that this theatre's unparalleled contribution to Malta's cultural scene is acknowledged, appreciated and documented.

In 1833, the Select Committee for Public Walks was introduced so that 'the provision of parks would lead to a better use of Sundays and the replacement of the debasing pleasures.' Music was seen as an important moral influence and 'musical cultivation ... the safest and surest method of popular culture', and it was the eventual introduction of the bandstand which became a significant aspect of the reforming potential of public parks. However, the move from the bull baiting of 'Merrie England' to the ordered recreation provided by bandstands has never been fully comprehended. Likewise, the extent of changes in leisure and public entertainment and the impact of music at seaside resorts often revolved around the use of seaside bandstands, with the subsequent growth of coastal resorts. Music in public spaces, and the history and heritage of the bandstand has largely been ignored. Yet in their heyday, there were over 1,500 bandstands in the country, in public parks, on piers and seaside promenades attracting the likes of crowds of over 10,000 in the Arboretum in Lincoln, to regular weekday and weekend concerts in most of London's parks up until the beginning of the Second World War. Little is really known about them, from their evolution as 'orchestras' in the early Pleasure Gardens, the music played within them, to their intricate and ornate ironwork or art deco designs and the impact of the great foundries, their worldwide influence, to the great decline post Second World War and subsequent revival in the late 1990s. This book tells the story of these pavilions made for music, and their history, decline and revival.

The rebuilding of the Globe theater (1599-1613) on London's Bankside, a few yards from the site of the playhouse in which many of Shakespeare's plays were first performed, must rank as one of the most imaginative enterprises of recent decades. The realization of the vision of Sam Wanamaker and his architect Theo Crosby, it has aroused intense interest among scholars and the general public worldwide. In anticipation of the official opening and the first performance season, visitors have been drawn in large numbers to the auditorium and exhibition. Shakespeare's Globe Rebuilt offers a fully-illustrated account of the research that has gone into the Globe reconstruction, drawing on the work of leading scholars, theater people and craftsmen to provide an authoritative view of the twenty years of research and the hundreds of practical decisions entailed. Documents of the period, both visual and written, have been explored anew; the techniques of timber-framed building have been relearned; the archaeology of the Globe and the neighboring Rose playhouse has been further evaluated; the decorative practices of Elizabethan craftsmen have been researched; and all this reconciled with the requirements of the actors and the practical and legal restrictions of modern architectural design. The result is a book that will fascinate scholarly readers and laymen alike.

Stadium and Arena Design highlights the multidisciplinary approach needed to create and run stadia, showing how each of the specialists involved have essential roles to play. International case studies are used to demonstrate how all these skills are brought together in stadium design best practice, to ultimately benefit the client, the performers, and the spectators. Stadium and Arena Design is an important reference for all construction professionals and practitioners involved in the design, construction and evaluation of stadiums internationally.

More than a century before airlines placed it at the center of their systems, Chicago was already the nation's transportation hub -from Union Station, passengers could reach major cities on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts as well as countless points in between. Chicago's history is tightly linked to its railroads. Railroad historian Fred Ash begins in the mid 1800's, when Chicago dominated Midwest trade and was referred to as the "Railroad Capital of the World." During this period, swings in the political climate significantly modified the relationship between the local government and its largest landholders, the railroads. From here, Ash highlights competition at the turn of the twentieth century between railroad companies that greatly influenced Chicago's urban landscape. Profiling the fascinating stories of businessmen, politicians, workers, and immigrants whose everyday lives were affected by the bustling transportation hub, Ash documents the impact Union Station had on the growing city and the entire Midwest. Featuring more than 100 photographs of the famous beaux art architecture, Chicago Union Station is a beautifully illustrated tribute to one of America's overlooked treasures.

Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer, once pleaded for `a pretty move for the love of God' when watching his beloved soccer. This book is likewise interested in `beautiful moves', but turns instead to the architecture of the stadium as an architectural type as captivating as the play occurring on the pitch. In the past 30 years a number of stadium projects have been completed that highlight how this building type has become a site for architectural innovation and complexity. Clients that once would once have turned to large firms specializing in stadia instead began to hire A-list and Pritzker-Prize-winning architects to design new stadia. As a result, in cities around the world stadia are often the most expensive and monumental of projects, and may be icons of identity and defining presences in the built landscape. By examining a range of exemplary stadia from around the world (built, unbuilt and demolished projects), this book presents for the first time a canon for this building type. Organized chronologically, it includes famous examples from the likes of Lina Bo Bardi, Frei Otto, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Herzog & de Meuron, Foster + Partners and Studio Gang.

Across the nation, stadiums and sports centers are a vital aspect of urban redevelopment. How do these projects affect the communities near the new facilities? Focusing on the controversies surrounding three major Chicago projects-the United Center, Comiskey Park, and lighting Wrigley Field-It's Hardly Sportin' suggests fresh ways for cities to coordinate the expansion of sports facilities with neighborhood life. Shared interest in the home team's triumphs and tragedies can unify a city. But when disputes arise over new and improved sports stadiums, who wins and who loses at the neighborhood level? Using Chicago as a case study, Spirou and Bennett show what happens to neighborhoods when cities use sports as a strategy for revitalization. They argue that stadiums serve as effective tools for urban revitalization only if community organizations and local conditions are closely involved in the planning process. Offering provocative insights into the challenges of contemporary urban economic development, It's Hardly Sportin' calls attention to the crucial role of sports centers in American culture.

It used to be said that whenever a football (UK) manager needed a goal scorer, all he had to do was travel to the North East of England, call down a mineshaft and up would pop a centre forward. But while the careers of Alan Shearer, Raich Carter, Bobby Robson, Brian Clough and Jackie Milburn all attest to the famous description of the North East as 'the hotbed of football', the region's miners and shipbuilders were just as likely to be formidable boxers, rowers, runners, cricketers or pigeon-racers. In Played on Tyne and Wear, the 16th book in English Heritage's groundbreaking Played in Britain series, architectural historian Lynn Pearson guides the reader on an intimate tour of the area's sporting treasures, from the site of the celebrated Blaydon Races in Newcastle to a cockfighting pit in Tynemouth, and from the cantilevered heights of Sunderland's Stadium of Light to the homespun delights of Britain's only listed pigeon cree in Ryhope. On Newcastle's Town Moor - one of the great open spaces of urban Britain - Pearson traces the path of the Toon's old racecourse and the haunts of strong-armed pot-share bowlers (whose mathces drew tens of thousands of gamblers in the 19th century), while an echo from the other side of the Moor recalls the smoky clamour of the 5,000 capacity St James' Hall, where the likes of 'Seaman' Tommy Watson and Jack Casey 'the Sunderland Assassin' drew massive crowds between the wars. The River Tyne itself has witnessed many an epic rowing battle, not least featuring the legendary oarsman Harry Clasper, whose funeral drew an estimated 100,000 to the streets in 1870. More recently the likes of Brendan Foster and Steve Cram have continued the North East's reputation for great athletes and for great events, such as the Great North Run and the now annual Gateshead Grand Prix. Lesser known gems from the Victorian era include the Ashbrooke sports ground in Sunderland, a real tennis court at Jesmnd, and a handball wall in Wallsend, while the region is dotted with charming bowls and tennis pavilions, golf courses and cricket grounds. Profusely illustrated with archive images, specially commissioned contemporary photography and detailed mapping, Pearson's study may not get Geordies and Mackems to bury the past, but it shows they have sporting heritage aplenty to share as neighbours.

From the legendary Ebbets Field in the heart of Brooklyn to the amenity-packed Houston Astrodome to the "retro" Oriole Park at Camden Yards, stadiums have taken many shapes and served different purposes throughout the history of American sports culture. In the early twentieth century, a new generation of stadiums arrived, located in the city center, easily accessible to the public, and offering affordable tickets that drew mixed crowds of men and women from different backgrounds. But in the successive decades, planners and architects turned sharply away from this approach. In Modern Coliseum, Benjamin D. Lisle tracks changes in stadium design and culture since World War II. These engineered marvels channeled postwar national ambitions while replacing aging ballparks typically embedded in dense urban settings. They were stadiums designed for the "affluent society"-brightly colored, technologically expressive, and geared to the car-driving, consumerist suburbanite. The modern stadium thus redefined one of the city's more rambunctious and diverse public spaces. Modern Coliseum offers a cultural history of this iconic but overlooked architectural form. Lisle grounds his analysis in extensive research among the archives of teams, owners, architects, and cities, examining how design, construction, and operational choices were made. Through this approach, we see modernism on the ground, as it was imagined, designed, built, and experienced as both an architectural and a social phenomenon. With Lisle's compelling analysis supplemented by over seventy-five images documenting the transformation of the American stadium over time, Modern Coliseum will be of interest to a variety of readers, from urban and architectural historians to sports fans.

This is the first book to analyze the evolution of the Roman amphitheatre as an architectural form. Katherine Welch addresses the critical period in the history of this building type: its origins and dissemination under the Republic, from the third to first centuries BC; its monumentalization as an architectural form under Augustus; and its canonization as a building type with the Colosseum (AD 80). She explores the social and political contexts of each of these phases in detail. The study then shifts focus to the reception of the amphitheatre and the games in the Greek East, a part of the Empire that was, initially, deeply fractured about the new realities of Roman rule.

2017 Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research 2016 Pete Delohery Award for Best Sports Book from Shelf Unbound When it opened in 1965, the Houston Astrodome, nicknamed the Eighth Wonder of the World, captured the attention of an entire nation, bringing pride to the city and enhancing its reputation nationwide. It was a Texas-sized vision of the future, an unthinkable feat of engineering with premium luxury suites, theater-style seating, and the first animated scoreboard. Yet there were memorable problems such as outfielders' inability to see fly balls and failed attempts to grow natural grass-which ultimately led to the development of AstroTurf. The Astrodome nonetheless changed the way people viewed sports, putting casual fans at the forefront of a user-experience approach that soon became the standard in all American sports. The Eighth Wonder of the World tears back the facade and details the Astrodome's role in transforming Houston as a city while also chronicling the building's storied fifty years in existence and the ongoing debate about its preservation.

The Apollo legend retold...When the rock'n'roll revolution came, Scotland was in the thick of the action. Every big name in the business wanted to be there for one reason: the Glasgow Apollo. Between 1973 and 1985 the 'Purple Palace' played host to everyone who ever mattered. From ABBA to Zappa, Johnny Cash to the Style Council, they all played and they all came back. The former cinema was a one-off, with its high stage, infamous bouncers - and the terrifying bouncing balcony. This book, first published in 2005, explains what made the venue so special, with the addition of new interviews, unseen photos and commentary. It ties in with the GlasgowApollo.com website to bring you the story of a rock'n'roll legend, told by the people who made it: those who played there, those who worked there and the unforgettable Glasgow choir, who inspired dozens of acts to record their Apollo shows for live release. Martin Kielty is a Glaswegian music journalist, band manager and drummer.

Featuring a special section devoted exclusively to the 23 NIRSA Outstanding Sports Facilities Award winners from 2002, 2004 and 2005, "Sports & Recreational Facilities" is an outstanding collection of the best contemporary sports and recreational facilities--collegiate and otherwise. It showcases some of the finest stadiums, arenas, recreational centers, and related buildings being designed by leading architects today. If you are involved in the design and construction of sports and recreational facilities, or just want to see what other universities offer their students, you will find a wealth of information and inspiration in this book.

At 192 pages with 400 beautifully reproduced full-color photographs and accompanying expert commentary from architect Roger Yee, "Sports & Recreational Facilities" highlights the work of leading architects, interior designers, and graphic design professionals. All projects are indexed for easy reference and frequent use.

NIRSA Outstanding Sports Facilities Award Winners Featured in "Sports & Recreational Facilities"Boise State UniversityChristopher Newport UniversityFort Lewis CollegeGeorgia Institute of TechnologyGeorgia State UniversityKent State UniversityLoyola College in MarylandLoyola Marymount UniversityOklahoma State University-StillwaterOregon State UniversitySonoma State UniversityTexas Christian UniversityUniversity of AlabamaUniversity of Central FloridaUniversity of HoustonUniversity of Minnesota, Twin CitiesUniversity of North TexasUniversity of South CarolinaUniversity of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at DallasUniversity of VirginiaWashington State UniversityWest Virginia UniversityWestern Washington University

From Bach's choral works composed for performance in the Thomas-Kirche Leipzig to Stockhausen's electronic music designed specifically for caves, the course of Western music has been closely connected to the spaces in which it has been performed. In this remarkable study, Michael Forsyth - designer of concert halls, architect, and violinist - examines the effect of musical taste and style on architecture and the reciprocal influence that buildings and their acoustics have had on musical performance and composition.Buildings for Music opens with a description of the purpose - built music rooms in Britain and Germany from the 17th century. From there it moves to the evolution of the opera house in Italy and France, analyzing these buildings in terms of the acoustic requirements of 18th-century music in the classical style. The great 19th-century concert halls and opera houses are then described in relation to the development of Romantic music. In seeking the reasons for their excellence and flaws, the book dispels a number of acoustic myths.The final part of the book outlines the growth of acoustic science and the parallel emergence of the 20th-century concert hall and of modern music. The influence of recording techniques and cinema design are also discussed. In closing, Forsyth looks to a future that may find its inspiration in electronics and the adjustable auditorium.Michael Forsyth teaches and researches architecture at the University of Bristol. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on concert hall acoustics, and is a frequent contributor to the Architects' Journal.

This is the story of how France's famed cultural icon, one of the most controversial and public buildings of the century, was designed and built. Nathan Silver's detailed account of the Centre Pompidou - still called Beaubourg by its designers, and by Parisians - takes the form of a "building biography." Not just a book about a building but also about the making of a building, this means of inquiry is a holistic reading of the intricate process of creating architecture in contemporary society that brings to light its human story, encompassing its stylistic, historical, technical and social aspects. Beaubourg was unlike anything that had ever been built. A realization of ideals and aspirations of an architectural generation, a rethinking of fundamental precepts of design and construction, it took nothing for granted, and it has since become one of the most popular tourist attractions in Europe - flaunting new principles with which other architects have had to come to terms. The text's discovery of this building is never separated from the process, politics, crises and controversies of its making. Based on interviews conducted at the time with all of the key players, Silver presents a behind-the-scenes narrative of design process and decision making that he weighs with bold critical scrutiny. Silver explores the saga of the designers' battles, over a period of five and a half years, to maintain control and build within budget. He starts from the beginning when the British/Italian/Anglo-Danish design team, including architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano and engineers Peter Rice and Ted Happold of Ove Arup, took a long-shot gamble on an international competition. Silver then details the design team's conception of a building with flexible plans and adjustable elevations, describes the development of a structural system as inventive as that of the Eiffel Tower and equally as public in its urban rhetoric, and concludes with the triumph of Beaubourg's popular and critical reception.

Los Angeles has nourished a dazzling array of independent cinemas: avant-garde and art cinema, ethnic and industrial films, pornography, documentaries, and many other far-flung corners of film culture. This glorious panoramic history of film production outside the commercial studio system reconfigures Los Angeles, rather than New York, as the true center of avant-garde cinema in the United States. As he brilliantly delineates the cultural perimeter of the film business from the earliest days of cinema to the contemporary scene, David James argues that avant-garde and minority filmmaking in Los Angeles has in fact been "the "prototypical attempt to create emancipatory and progressive culture.
Drawing from urban history and geography, local news reporting, and a wide range of film criticism, James gives astute analyzes of scores of films--many of which are to found only in archives. He also looks at some of the most innovative moments in Hollywood, revealing the full extent of the cross-fertilization the occurred between the studio system and films created outside it. Throughout, he demonstrates that Los Angeles has been in the aesthetic and social vanguard in all cinematic periods--from the Socialist cinemas of the early teens and 1930s; to the personal cinemas of psychic self-investigation in the 1940s; to attempts in the 1960s to revitalize the industry with the counterculture's utopian visions; and to the 1970s, when African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, women, gays, and lesbians worked to create cinemas of their own. James takes us up to the 1990s and beyond to explore new forms of art cinema that are now transforming the representation of Southern California's geography.

Text in English and German. The Neues Haus, the new building for the Munchner Kammerspiele, is not a big building in any sense. The plot of land not far from Maximilian-strasse, whose greatest advantage is its proximity to Richard Riemerschmied's Schauspielhaus, is only about 1000 m2 in area. The most important quality of the design is in fact that it accepts the modesty of its role. The new building subordinates itself to the main Kammerspiele building, and manages without lavish foyers and extensive prestigious areas. The Neues Haus is a servant building, a place where work is done. A hasty passer-by would see the building simply as a white cube, reticent and introverted. Given the serene mastery of the brief and the architectural resources, one is almost inclined to call it a work of Peichl's old age, combining his love of clear volumes with a sovereign grasp of technical requirements. Like the silvery-sparkling ORF studios, the ground radio station in Styria and the liner-like phosphate elimination plant in Berlin before it, the Neues Haus is also crammed full of technology. It contains three stages, and two of them can be used at the same time. The largest playing area is elaborately equipped with gallery and under-stage; it is therefore intended as the main rehearsal area in future. The two large auditoriums are stacked one above the other like shoe-boxes and form a massive hollow core surrounded by all the service functions. The interior is dominated by a plainness that oscillates between poverty and asceticism. The corridors and foyers are narrow, the stairs simple, the interval areas positively sparse. The only opulent feature is the splendid technical equipment. Peichl's handwriting can be seen in the treatment of the details and his ingenious practice of self-quotation. Many of the motifs are reminiscent of earlier projects, and of course the typical portholes, spiral staircases and railings made of steel hawsers crop up again, all Peichl's usual maritime metaphors. In this way he has produced a building whose cool elegance reveals scarcely anything of its inner values.

2017 Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research 2016 Pete Delohery Award for Best Sports Book from Shelf Unbound When it opened in 1965, the Houston Astrodome, nicknamed the Eighth Wonder of the World, captured the attention of an entire nation, bringing pride to the city and enhancing its reputation nationwide. It was a Texas-sized vision of the future, an unthinkable feat of engineering with premium luxury suites, theater-style seating, and the first animated scoreboard. Yet there were memorable problems such as outfielders' inability to see fly balls and failed attempts to grow natural grass-which ultimately led to the development of AstroTurf. The Astrodome nonetheless changed the way people viewed sports, putting casual fans at the forefront of a user-experience approach that soon became the standard in all American sports. The Eighth Wonder of the World tears back the facade and details the Astrodome's role in transforming Houston as a city while also chronicling the building's storied fifty years in existence and the ongoing debate about its preservation.

Stadium construction has altered the physical landscape of many major metropolitan areas throughout North America and has had a profound psychological and economic impact on these urban centers. How athletic facilities have been constructed, from the ritual-centered beginning of stadium construction in ancient Greece to largescale construction of professional sports facilities in present day global centers, reveals a culture's values and priorities and how it defines its recreational needs. With in-depth analysis and research, Robert C. Trumpbour examines the political institutions, commercial entities, civic leadership, and media organizations that influenced new stadium construction. The author analyzes three significant recent historical periods: the Progressive Era when modern fireproof stadiums were first built; the late 1960s and early 1970s when multipurpose football stadiums were built in downtown areas to promote urban redevelopment; and the late 1990s when retro ballparks were built to employ novel measures for profiteering. Charting this evolution, Trumpbour convincingly argues that there has been a dramatic shift in the role of the media, one in which media access has emerged as a vital element in setting the ground rules for the stadium construction debate. Written in lucid, jargon-free prose, this book combines a detailed history of stadium construction with an analysis of current stadium issues that provides a rich, portrait of our cultural landscape.

Known as the 'Big Eye' the Oita Stadium is one of the chosen venues for the next World Cup in 2002. It will be reused for the second stage of the Japan Inter-Prefectural Athletic Competition in 2008 after the World Cup, continuing to grow in the future to become a large-scale all-purpose sports park for Oita. The whole site covers an area of 225 ha and has several facilities outside the main football stadium. These include general fitness, training and lodging centres, a botanical pool, two multipurpose athletic fields, two rugby and soccer practise pitches, a softball field, tennis courts and other game areas. The main stadium features an open track for athletic events as well as the football pitch. It can also be used year-round for public events aided by its retractable roof. For soccer matches, spectator seats are placed right up to the edge of the pitch to bring them close to the action. To change over for track events a retractable seating system was developed. The stadium sits elegantly on its site, enhanced by the gentle curves of its spherical design. The choice of the sphere, Kurokawa says, is 'an expression of abstract symbolism'. This spherical shape also enables the retractable portion to move along its curved surface. The use of Teflon membrane panels with 25 percent light permeability obviates the need for artificial lighting during daylight hours. In order for the pitch to get proper exposure to sunlight the elliptical roof opening runs along the north-south axis. A main arch with perpendicular horizontal sub-members follows the elliptical shape of the roof opening. Between the roof and the spectator seating below the surrounding mountains can be seen from a slender ventilation clearstorey set just below the roof line. This slit of space is designed to create a feeling of openness inside the stadium. Since the original design, an idea emerged for a moving camera to be located on the main beam to deliver special dynamic images for television audiences around the world.

Drawing on detailed design, construction and financial histories of six prominent Performing Arts buildings with budgets ranging from AGBP3.4 million to over AGBP100 million, Geometry and Atmosphere presents unique and valuable insights into the complex process of building for the arts. Each theatre project, from tailor-made spaces for avant-garde companies to iconic and innovative receiving houses, yields surprising and counter-intuitive findings. For each of the six projects, the authors have interviewed all those involved. Combining these interviews with exhaustive archival research, the authors then provide cross-case analysis which is distilled into guidance for all stakeholders as they transform their initial vision into built reality. In particular, the book challenges the technical focus of existing design guides for the Performing Arts by suggesting that current practice in briefing and design does not serve the Arts community especially well. It shows that there is a need for an approach in which the focus is firmly rooted in the delivery of the driving artistic vision. As well as being of interest to architects, urban designers and those involved in theatre studies, this book will be useful to other sectors where public money is spent on major building projects.

Live Architecture explores the physical form of popular music performance space from 1960 to the present day.

This book quantifies the factors that determine what makes a venue successful focusing on both famous and less well-known examples from the smallest barroom music space to the largest stadium-filling rock set. It draws on the author s extensive research expertise in the field of temporary and portable architecture, in the development of general contemporary architectural design, and personal experience of music performance.

Including a range of case studies, the book analyses some of the most significant popular music venues, events and landmarks in the world. The detail of how a venue is created, how it is constructed, and the acoustic and visual environmental factors that impact on its success are examined here.

Highly illustrated throughout with design drawings, plans and full colour photographs, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the architecture of live popular music.