Explore the world's most fascinating historical and contemporary buildings, from ancient pyramids to hi-tech skyscrapers, in this essential guide to architecture.

Buildings that Changed History gives you an overview of the history of architecture from the ancient world to the present day. It takes you on guided tours of more than 50 masterpieces of every architectural style, from the Great Pyramid of Giza to Chartres Cathedral, Sydney Opera House, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Each building is analysed visually. CGI cutaway artworks peel away roofs and walls to reveal the bones of the building, and close-up photographs home in on details of style.

Buildings that Changed History takes a truly global look at both historical and contemporary architecture. It shows you how to "read" buildings and work out when they were constructed. What is the difference between a Doric and an Ionic column? How does a flying buttress work? Why do concrete balconies appear to float in thin air? You will find the answers here, along with a wealth of intriguing stories about the patrons, builders, and architects who made each architectural masterpiece possible.

Reading Buildings that Changed History is like being taken on a personal tour by a guide who shows you exactly what to look at.

In the last twenty years, reception studies have significantly enhanced our understanding of the ways in which Classics has shaped modern Western culture, but very little attention has been directed toward the reception of classical architecture. Housing the New Romans: Architectual Reception and Classical Style in the Modern World addresses this gap by investigating ways in which appropriation and allusion facilitated the reception of Classical Greece and Rome through the requisition and redeployment of classicizing tropes to create neo-Antique sites of "dwelling" in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The volume, across nine essays, will cover both European and American iterations of place making, including Sir John Soanes' house in London, the Hotel de Beauharnais in Paris, and the Getty Villa in California. By focusing on structures and places that are oriented towards private life-houses, hotels, clubs, tombs, and gardens - the volume directs the critical gaze towards diverse and complex sites of curatorial self-fashioning. The goal of the volume is to provide a multiplicity of interpretative frameworks (e.g. object-agency enchantment, hyperreality, memory-infrastructure) that may be applied to the study of architectural reception. This critical approach makes Housing the New Romans the first work of its kind in the emerging field of architectural and landscape reception studies and in the hitherto textually dominated field of classical reception.

A history of architecture, in miniature, is seen here through a century of children's toys. For years, toy buildings have inspired the imaginations of both children and adults. Valued as collectible items and praised for architectural design, toy buildings provide hours of fun as well as educational insight into the times in which they were made. This book includes over 550 photographs of toy villages, dollhouses, barns, stables, schools, fire stations, stores, theaters, airports, railroad depots, garages, service stations, castles, forts, and other structures. Photographs from catalogs and magazines verify dates of production and manufacturers including Marx, Schoenhut, Bliss, Gottschalk, Plasticville, Keystone, Rich, Arcade, Built-Rite, Converse, Chein, Ohio Art, Renwal, and Tri-ang. Estimated prices are provided in the captions and sources for finding toy buildings are listed. This book will be an indispensable tool for collectors of toy vehicles, model railroads, playsets, dollhouses, gas station memorabilia, and toy soldiers.

What “really constitutes an architectural atmosphere”? Peter Zumthor says, is “this singular density and mood, this feeling of presence, well-being, harmony, beauty ... under whose spell I experience what I otherwise would not experience in precisely this way.” Zumthor’s passion is the creation of buildings that produce this kind of effect, but how can one actually set out to achieve it? In nine short, illustrated chapters framed as a process of self-observation, Peter Zumthor describes what he has on his mind as he sets about creating the atmosphere of his houses. Images of spaces and buildings that affect him are every bit as important as particular pieces of music or books that inspire him. From the composition and “presence”‎ of the materials to the handling of proportions and the effect of light, this poetics of architecture enables the reader to recapitulate what really matters in the process of house design.

A vibrant history of the castle in Britain, from the early Middle Ages to the present day The castle has long had a pivotal place in British life, associated with lordship, landholding, and military might, and today it remains a powerful symbol of history. But castles have never been merely impressive fortresses-they were hubs of life, activity, and imagination. John Goodall weaves together the history of the British castle across the span of a millennium, from the eleventh to the twenty-first century, through the voices of those who witnessed it. Drawing on chronicles, poems, letters, and novels, including the work of figures like Gawain Poet, Walter Scott, Evelyn Waugh, and P. G. Wodehouse, Goodall explores the importance of the castle in our culture and society. From the medieval period to Civil War engagements, right up to modern manifestations in Harry Potter, Goodall reveals that the castle has always been put to different uses, and to this day continues to serve as a source of inspiration.

Tour sixteen beautifully restored homes built and decorated in the Arts and Craft style, an early twentieth century movement to counter the increasing urbanization and mechanization of human life. Nearly 300 color photos detail links between nature and human skill, and capture architectural elements of the Arts and Crafts bungalow. This book is a must have for Arts and Crafts followers and ideal for all woodworkers, glass workers, masons, and collectors, offering insight and design inspiration through images of built-in cabinets, stained glass windows, brick fireplaces, and antiques displays.

Atmosphere, Cinema, Architecture: Thematic Reflections on Ambiance and Place explores cinema and architecture as ambient and affective settings or circumstances that can enable the emergence of atmosphere. This book is an interdisciplinary reading of cinematographic practice which develops useful implications for spatial composition in art and architectural design. The way a film is set up, directed, composed, framed, and technically constructed can provide parallels, analogies and metaphors for the spatial organisation of cities, landscapes and buildings. Likewise, the way a built setting is conceived and devised can inform approaches to framing and spatial organisation in cinematography. The book begins on a personal note with a series of recollected atmospheric experiences, leading to an investigation of ambiguity and consilient discrepancy as circumstantial conditions necessary for the production of atmosphere. The mood of melancholia is explored to show the pivotal role that ambiguity, discrepancy and irresolution play in its distinctive ambiance. Atmosphere is then defined as an emergent condition arising between an ambient, affective circumstance and a mooded human being. The book then moves to analyse the inherent conditions in the setup of filmic and architectural settings that render them atmospheric. Reference is made to the cinema of Bresson, Resnais, Lynch, Tarr, Malik and Campion, and to Romanesque tympanae, the architectonic scenography of Franz Kafka's novel The Castle and the work of Spanish architects Flores Prats. The concluding section, Anatomy of Atmosphere, is a lexicon of concepts, themes and tactics around atmosphere that might usefully inform creative practice.

A captivating exploration of Britain's most iconic contemporary buildings, from the Barratt home to the Millennium Dome. 'A love letter to contemporary buildings and a fantastic account of recent British history, rich in humour.' NINA STIBBE 'Brilliant, encyclopaedic, funny and often cutting.' DANNY DORLING 'An eloquent, witty, passionate tour of Britain since the 1980s.' JOHN BOUGHTON 'Recounts the stories of our lived landscapes with wit, passion and a shot of anger.' TOM DYCKHOFF 'Grindrod has spoken to everyone and his observations are humane and acute.' OWEN HATHERLEY Wimpey homes. Millennium monuments. Riverside flats. Wind farms. Spectacular skyscrapers. City centre apartments. Out of town malls. The buildings designed in our lifetimes encapsulate the dreams and aspirations of our culture, while also revealing the sobering realities. Whether modest or monumental, they offer a living history of Britain, symbols of the forces that have shaped our modern landscape and icons in their own right. ICONICON is an enthralling journey around the Britain we have created since 1980: the horrors and delights, the triumphs and failures. From space-age tower blocks to suburban business parks, and from postmodernist exuberance to Passivhaus eco-efficiency, this is at once a revelatory architectural grand tour and an endlessly witty and engaging piece of social history.

Icons of Sound: Voice, Architecture, and Imagination in Medieval Art brings together art history and sound studies to offer new perspectives on medieval churches and cathedrals as spaces where the perception of the visual is inherently shaped by sound. The chapters encompass a wide geographic and historical range, from the fifth to the fifteenth century, and from Armenia and Byzantium to Venice, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela. Contributors offer nuanced explorations of the intangible sonic aura produced in these places by the ritual music and harness the use of digital technology to reconstruct historical aural environments. Rooted in a decade-long interdisciplinary research project at Stanford University, Icons of Sound expands our understanding of the inherently intertwined relationship between medieval chant and liturgy, the acoustics of architectural spaces, and their visual aesthetics. Together, the contributors provide insights that are relevant across art history, sound studies, musicology, and medieval studies.

STUDY GUIDE FOR THE CODES GUIDEBOOK FOR INTERIORS The comprehensive study guide for understanding interior codes This revised and updated eighth edition of the Study Guide for the Codes Guidebook for Interiors is an essential companion to The Codes Guidebook for Interiors, the industry's reference of choice. It offers complete coverage of the major codes and standards that apply to interior projects. This Study Guide includes lists of terms, practice questions, practical application exercises, code tables, and checklists. This companion study guide is a comprehensive measure of a designer's understanding and application of codes for interior projects. It can help design students learn and practitioners keep their skills up to date and prepare for the NCIDQ and ARE exams. It is vital that designers and architects have an up-to-date working knowledge of the various codes involved with building interiors, whether during renovation or new construction, and this study guide offers the opportunity to: Study with many new questions, in both the short answer and application sections Review the key terms of the industry Use the practice questions and exercises to test working knowledge of codes Utilize the code tables during the design process Employ the numerous checklists on proposed and real life projects to ensure complete compliance The revised Study Guide is a useful companion to The Codes Guidebook for Interiors, the essential reference for all interior professionals. For the designer, architect, or student, the Study Guide for The Codes Guidebook for Interiors is a must-have resource.

For thousands of years, humans have built walls and assaulted them, admired walls and reviled them. Great Walls have appeared on nearly every continent, the handiwork of people from Persia, Rome, China, Central America, and beyond. They have accompanied the rise of cities, nations, and empires. And yet they rarely appear in our history books.

Spanning centuries and millennia, drawing on archaeological digs to evidence from Berlin and Hollywood, David Frye uncovers the story of walls and asks questions that are both intriguing and profound. Did walls make civilization possible? Can we live without them?

This is more than a tale of bricks and stone: Frye reveals the startling link between what we build and how we live, who we are and how we came to be. It is nothing less than the story of civilization.

Including previously unpublished and recently re-discovered designs for the interior of the Museum, Olivia Horsfall Turner's fascinating new book, the latest in the V&A 19th-Century Series, looks at the relationship between architect and designer Owen Jones and the South Kensington Museum (later the V&A) in the period from the Museum's establishment in the 1850s to Jones's death in 1874. It focuses on key moments in Jones's relationship with the Museum: the creation of his well-known publication The Grammar of Ornament (1856) and his less widely known Examples of Chinese Ornament (1867), and the decoration of the Museum's so-called Oriental Court between 1863 and 1865. Jones's collaboration with the Museum over a period of almost 20 years is of special interest not only thanks to his status as one of the most influential design theorists of the 19th century, but also for the light that it sheds on the identity of the early Museum and its imperial context.

The "organic" is by now a venerable concept within aesthetics, architecture, and art history, but what might such a term mean within the spatialities and temporalities of film? By way of an answer, this concise and innovative study locates organicity in the work of Bela Tarr, the renowned Hungarian filmmaker and pioneer of the "slow cinema" movement. Through a wholly original analysis of the long take and other signature features of Tarr's work, author Thorsten Botz-Bornstein establishes compelling links between the seemingly remote spheres of film and architecture, revealing shared organic principles that emphasize the transcendence of boundaries.

After decades of research on minds and brains and a decade of conversations with architects, Michael Arbib presents When Brains Meet Buildings as an invitation to the science behind architecture, richly illustrated with buildings both famous and domestic. As he converses with the reader, he presents action-oriented perception, memory, and imagination as well as atmosphere, aesthetics, and emotion as keys to analyzing the experience and design of architecture. He also explores what it might mean for buildings to have "brains" and illuminates all this with an appreciation of the biological and cultural evolution that supports the diverse modes of human living that we know today. These conversations will not only raise the level of interaction between architecture and neuroscience but, by explaining the world of each group to the other, will also engage all readers who share a fascination with both the brains within them and the buildings around them. Michael Arbib is a pioneer in the interdisciplinary study of computers and brains and has long studied brain mechanisms underlying the visual control of action. His expertise makes him a unique authority on the intersection of architecture and neuroscience.

This book examines the notion of 'the homely' which rests at the foundation of Gaston Bachelard's concrete metaphysics. In order to trace the development of this effaced notion through the history of contemporary Continental philosophy and literature, this study progresses along two distinct arcs. One is presented in a traditional chronological fashion whereby the reader is invited to dig down into the enormous chasm set forth in Martin Heidegger's writing and its reception; become lost in Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves; climb out from this labyrinth into the maternal home; and, finally, come slowly to rest in Gaston Bachelard's concrete metaphysics. Then a Bachelardian topoanalysis is applied to these images drawn from philosophy and literature, metaphysical and concrete expression, in order to follow a second, more significant arc along which progressively more primal spaces are uncovered. This second arc leads back, ultimately, to the foundation of concrete metaphysics: home. Through this topoanalysis the author articulates a fundamental insight about the human desire to have 'a place of one's own', a warm and comfortable, fixed and fixing space in which to set ourselves apart from the strife and turmoil of 'The World'.