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Books > Arts & Architecture > Architecture > General
The rise of luxury and sophistication in mid-century modern architecture and design The sleek lines and gleaming facades of the architecture of the late 1940s and 1950s reflect a culture fascinated by the promise of the Jet Age. Buildings like Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal at JFK Airport and Philip Johnson's Four Seasons Restaurant retain a thrilling allure, seeming to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. In this work, distinguished architectural historian Alice Friedman draws on a vast range of sources to argue that the aesthetics of mid-century modern architecture reflect an increasing fascination with "glamour," a term widely used in those years to characterize objects, people, and experiences as luxurious, expressive, and even magical. Featuring assessments of architectural examples ranging from Mies van der Rohe's monolithic Seagram Building to Elvis Presley's sprawling Graceland estate, as well as vintage photographs, advertisements, and posters, this book argues that new audiences and client groups with tastes rooted in popular entertainment made their presence felt in the cultural marketplace during the postwar period. The author suggests that American and European architecture and design increasingly reflected the values of a burgeoning consumer society, including a fundamental confidence in the power of material objects to transform the identity and status of those who owned them.
Bruce Carscadden Architect is a design studio based in Vancouver. In a decade of practice, their studio has designed and executed numerous building types for a variety of clients, with an emphasis on community recreation projects in British Columbia. Carscadden Thrift is structured in the spirit of the translation from drawing (speculation) to material (actual). Photographs document the messy realities of construction and are referenced to select drawings. The analogy to a set of contract documents is obvious but not superficial. It requires readers to examine both in order to understand the nature of a project, projects that taken collectively describe the culture of the studio and the firm's attempts to understand questions posited by the constraints of scale, site and schedule.
Colour is everywhere in landscape design. It is also a fascinating aspect in the material and spiritual life of human beings. In the first section of this book, analysis is carried outfor colours' physiology and psychology influence on people. By comparing colours of differetn shades and tones, warm and cold colours, colours of contrast and similarites, gold & silver VS black & white and their visual effect in specific projects, the book studies the application of colours in landscape design. The second section discusses the colour of plants, paving, and furniture.
In this book, Claudia Moser offers a new understanding of Roman religion in the Republican era through an exploration of sacrifice, its principal ritual. Examining the long-term imprint of sacrificial practices on the material world, she focuses on monumental altars as the site for the act of sacrifice. Piecing together the fragments of the complex kaleidoscope of Roman religious practices, she shows how they fit together in ways that shed new light on the characteristic diversity of Roman religion. This study reorients the study of sacrificial practice in three principal ways: first, by establishing the primacy of sacred architecture, rather than individual action, in determining religious authority; second, by viewing religious activities as haptic, structured experiences in the material world rather than as expressions of doctrinal, belief-based mentalities; and third, by considering Roman sacrifice as a local, site-specific ritual rather than as a single, monolithic practice.
'Karen McCartney's Iconic Australian Houses books are re-imagined so cleverly in this freshly redesigned, encyclopaedic book, which brings together in one volume the best of 50 years of Australian residential architecture.' Lucy Feagins - The Design Files Iconic: Modern Australian Houses 1950--2000 showcases, in a fresh, new and collectible edition, the best residential projects from the previously published works 50/60/70 and 70/80/90 and which formed successful exhibitions shown at the Museum of Sydney. Completely redesigned in a new format, with revised introduction, this classic will find audiences both new to and familiar with the gems of Australian modernist architecture. Featuring houses from: Harry Seidler, Peter Muller, Roy Grounds, Peter McIntyre, Russell Jack, Robin Boyd, McGlashan Everist, Enrico Taglietti, Neville Gruzman, Bruce Rickard, Hugh Buhrich, Ian McKay, Iwan Iwanoff, Ian Collins, Richard Leplastrier, Glenn Murcott, Barrie Marshall, Ken Woolley, Lovell Chen, Wood Marsh, Andresen O'Gorman, Durbach Block, Sean Godsell, Stutchbury and Harper, Donovan Hill, John Wardle.
Christ Church, Oxford's largest and arguably grandest college, has awed visitors ever since its foundation by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525: one seventeenth-century visitor said 'it is more like some fine castle, or great palace than a College'. The already impressive site was further enhanced during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by ever more imposing structures, and building has continued up to the present day, sometimes following fashion, sometimes leading the way with new architectural styles. The Stones of Christ Church tells the fascinating story of the college's buildings throughout its five centuries, and of those who brought them into being, from the three great 'builder deans', John Fell, Henry Aldrich and Henry Liddell, to the humble slaters, joiners, bricklayers and stonemasons, and the materials that they worked with. The resulting buildings - Tom Tower, Peckwater Quad, Meadow Buildings and many more - are among the most iconic sights of Oxford today. Judith Curthoys, archivist at Christ Church since 1994, is also the author of The Cardinal's College (Profile, 2012), an in-depth history of this remarkable institution. Her new and impeccably researched study shows how much each generation's buildings, whether grand or humble, can tell us about the history both of the site and of those who occupied it.
This book offers the first systematic analysis of the cultural and religious appropriation of Andalusian architecture by Spanish historians during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To date this process of Christian appropriation has generally been discussed as a phenomenon of architectural hybridisation. However, this was a period in which the construction of a Spanish national identity became a key focus of historical discourse. As a result, cultural hybridity encountered partial opposition from those seeking to establish cultural and religious homogeneity. Spain's Islamic past became a major concern in this period and historical writing served as the site for a complex negotiation of identity. Historians and antiquarians used a range of strategies to re-appropriate the meaning of medieval Islamic heritage as befitted the new identity of Spain as a Catholic monarchy and empire. On the one hand, the monuments' Islamic origin was subjected to historical revisions and re-identified as Roman or Phoenician. On the other hand, religious forgeries were invented that staked claims for buildings and cities having been founded by Christians prior to the arrival of the Muslims in Spain. Islamic stones were used as core evidence in debates that shaped the early development of archaeology, and they also became the centre of a historical controversy about the origin of Spain as a nation as well as its ecclesiastical history.
Since the beginning of the century, the field of architecture has fervently turned its attention to documenting the contemporary urban condition. Every city been has been examined as a repository of architectural concepts, scrutinized as an urban manifesto, and recorded as a series of found objects. The Ordinary articulates a potential genealogy for this practice and for the genre of books derived from it. Organized around conversations with the authors of three seminal texts that document the city-Denise Scott Brown's Learning from Las Vegas (1972), Rem Koolhaas's Delirious New York (1978), and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto's Made in Tokyo (2001)-this volume traces the history of these "books on cities" by examining the material they recorded, the findings they established, the arguments they advanced, and the projects they promoted. These conversations also question the assumptions underlying this practice and whether in its ubiquity it still remains a space of opportunity.
A literary and cultural history of the intimate space of the eighteenth-century closet-and how it fired the imaginations of Pepys, Sterne, Swift, and so many other writers Long before it was a hidden storage space or a metaphor for queer and trans shame, the closet was one of the most charged settings in English architecture. This private room provided seclusion for reading, writing, praying, dressing, and collecting-and for talking in select company. In their closets, kings and duchesses shared secrets with favorites, midwives and apothecaries dispensed remedies, and newly wealthy men and women expanded their social networks. In The Closet, Danielle Bobker presents a literary and cultural history of these sites of extrafamilial intimacy, revealing how, as they proliferated both in buildings and in books, closets also became powerful symbols of the unstable virtual intimacy of the first mass-medium of print. Focused on the connections between status-conscious-and often awkward-interpersonal dynamics and an increasingly inclusive social and media landscape, The Closet examines dozens of historical and fictional encounters taking place in the various iterations of this room: courtly closets, bathing closets, prayer closets, privies, and the "moving closet" of the coach, among many others. In the process, the book conjures the intimate lives of well-known figures such as Samuel Pepys and Laurence Sterne, as well as less familiar ones such as Miss Hobart, a maid of honor at the Restoration court, and Lady Anne Acheson, Swift's patroness. Turning finally to queer theory, The Closet discovers uncanny echoes of the eighteenth-century language of the closet in twenty-first-century coming-out narratives. Featuring more than thirty illustrations, The Closet offers a richly detailed and compelling account of an eighteenth-century setting and symbol of intimacy that continues to resonate today.
This revised edition of "Buildings of Michigan" (first published in 1993) presents the architecture of the Upper and Lower peninsulas of Michigan, which are surrounded by four of the Great Lakes. From the Greek, Gothic, Italianate, Queen Anne, and Richardsonian Romanesque structures of the nineteenth century to the international, renowned modern buildings of the mid-twentieth century and the green and sustainable buildings of the twenty-first century, this book explores Michigan's history and covers the full spectrum of high-style and vernacular architecture and the building materials particular to the state. Surveying the architecture of Detroit and many other cities and villages, this volume examines such structures as early inns and houses along the Sauk Trail, the mine locations of the Copper and Iron ranges, the sandstone architecture of the Lake Superior region, the concrete buildings of Alpena, lighthouses and lifesaving stations of the Upper Great Lakes, the state's numerous bridges, the great houses of automobile industrialists in Grosse Pointe, the factories of Albert Kahn, the mid-twentieth-century buildings of Alden B. Dow and Minoru Yamasaki, and contributions of numerous local architects who have added to Michigan's architectural heritage. This new edition introduces buildings from the recent past and the present; discusses broad, sweeping cultural landscapes, historical parks, greenways, and linear parks; and showcases triumphs in historic preservation. As Detroit transforms itself from a city with a declining population and without the economic stability of the automobile industry, the book looks at how the city is reinventing itself. (Examples include Midtown, where the huge medical, academic, and cultural centers spark residential and retail development; the Detroit riverfront, which connects to open land converted to gardens, parks, and greenways; the viable close-in historic Woodbridge and Corktown neighborhoods, where residents have stayed; and Ford Field, Comerica Park, and the downtown theaters and casinos that entertain visitors.) Linkages of buildings by geography and theme receive attention. Heritage areas, river corridors, and highway routes arrange buildings and natural areas into comprehensible groups, and over 400 illustrations--including photographs, maps, and drawings--enhance the more than 950 entries. A volume in the Buildings of the United States series of the Society of Architectural Historians
Tabbaa’s Transformation offers an innovative approach to understanding the profound changes undergone by Islamic art and architecture during the often neglected Medieval Islamic period. Examining devices such as calligraphy, arabesque, muqarnas, and stonework, Tabbaa argues we propagated in a moment of confrontation and facilitated the re-emergence of the Sunni Abbasid caliphate in a more orthodox image. Tabbaa offers a timely and thought-provoking alternative to conventional essentialist, positivist and ethno-narrative interpretations of Islamic art.
Stone is a fascinating, fresh and insightful global tour of the world's oldest and most beautiful building material Featuring more than 170 structures, from prehistory through to today, the book includes an incredible range of buildings: awe-inspiring Neolithic monuments and the epic Pyramids of Giza feature alongside the work of twentieth-century icons, from Mies van der Rohe's seminal Barcelona Pavilion to Marcel Breuer's daring Met building in New York. There are also projects by the world's best contemporary architects, from Snøhetta's angular Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo to Kengo Kuma's sculptural Chokkura Plaza in Japan and David Chipperfield's geometric Museo Jumex in Mexico City. Arranged to promote comparison and discussion, each project includes an extended caption providing a perceptive commentary on the building. An elegant and informative visual exploration, Stone demonstrates the remarkable variety of creative and innovative structures the material has inspired around the world.
Deep in the desert of Jordan lies the hidden city of Petra, one of the greatest marvels of the ancient world. Carved from rose-red rock, Petra's monuments, dwellings and temples were for centuries the centre of a splendid civilization. Later the city fell into ruin and its location was lost, until the Swiss explorer Johann Burckhardt rediscovered it in 1812. Petra's mysterious beauty and dramatic story have long captivated the imaginations of historians and art lovers. Excavations by the authors Christian Auge and Jean-Marie Dentzer provide new information about this unique city.
Prototyping is an essential part of the designer's repertoire. Designers prototype their projects to test them, structurally, aesthetically, technically. Whether the prototype works or not is not the point: prototyping is the revelatory process through which the designer gains insight. There are three reasons why contemporary prototyping techniques are transforming the way architects design and build: 1) at a miniature scale, prototyping aids the architect in the presentation to clients of complex spatial ideas; 2) prototyping empowers the architect-designer to test and prove a building's feasibility, leading to more open-minded construction solutions; 3) whether additive (3D printing) or subtractive (robotic milling), prototyping can lead to unexpected and exciting new possibilities within design as a whole, across design disciplines, thus blurring the boundaries between them in highly creative ways. The book has four sections: an introduction that charts the rise of prototyping in design history, more specifically in architecture; an overview of techniques; a survey section featuring 30 projects, each presented through texts drawn from first-hand interviews, on-site photographs and drawings; and a reference section, which includes a glossary of technical terms.
This book looks at what motivates us to take photographs and at some of the methods of using the camera to do so successfully. It also examines some standards that should be applied to the photographs that we take of buildings to ensure that they will be useful documents in the record of the historic environment. Writing about photography tends to verge towards the technical, but the intention with this book is to `keep it simple'. Light is what we work with, whether we make use of existing light sources or introduce our own; it is this which will most greatly influence our photographs and our understanding of what we have captured through the lens. Digital capture is a great liberator for the photographer, but this can lead to a scatter gun approach. This book brings a more thorough and measured approach to the process. Other factors such as viewpoint and technical settings on the camera will also play a vital part in the story we want to tell. Illustrated throughout with examples of good and bad practice, this book sets out techniques and strategies in a simple and straightforward way for those who want to make their photographs of buildings truly effective.
Experience and learn about London's dynamic skyline with this bold, beautiful accordion book. From St. Pauls's to the Shard, London's skyline is one of its most memorable features. Now you can see it unfold in this fun and durable keepsake created by Yoni Alter. Printed in the magnetic bold colors that Alter is known for, this accordion book opens into a stunning silhouette of the city's most prominent buildings, arranged in chronological order. Printed on the reverse side is a timeline with descriptions of each structure. Alter's works of urban geometry have earned him a huge international following and this book is the perfect vehicle for his visually striking style. Perfect for planning a trip to London, or recollecting a recent visit, this smartly constructed recreation of the city's skyline is as illuminating as it is charming.
Between the Stock Market Crash and the Vietnam War, American corporations were responsible for the construction of thousands of headquarters across the United States. Over this time, the design of corporate headquarters evolved from Beaux-Arts facades to bold modernist expressions. This book examines how clients and architects together crafted buildings to reflect their company's brand, carefully considering consumers' perception and their emotions towards the architecture and the messages they communicated. By focusing on four American corporate headquarters: the PSFS Building by George Howe and William Lescaze, the Johnson Wax Administration Building by Frank Lloyd Wright, Lever House by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and The Roehm & Haas Building by Pietro Belluschi, it shows how corporate modernism evolved. In the 1930s, architecture and branding were separate and distinct and by the 1960s, they were completely integrated. Drawing on interviews and original material from corporations' archives, it examines how company leaders, together with their architects, conceived of their corporate headquarters not only as the consolidation of employee workplaces, but as architectural mediums to communicate their corporate identities and brands.
Amid the endless plains of Kazakhstan, an extraordinary architectural experiment has arisen: Astana. Formerly an outpost of the Tsarist Empire in the barren steppe, the location had developed into a typical Soviet provincial town. However, both internationally renowned and local architects are now designing spectacular and unique buildings in this dynamic city. Furthermore, Astana will host the Expo 2017 which will take place only twenty years after the city was built in the steppe alongside the old centre. The Astana Architectural Guide documents eighty diverse buildings and projects in the Kazakh metropolis, which was masterplanned by Kisho Kurokawa, and examines the contradictory nature at play within oriental traditions, western models and Soviet influences. Therefore, this publication represents a critical analysis of architecture and capital city planning in the centre of Eurasia.
Embracing a thousand years of history and an area stretching from the Atlantic to the borders of India and China, Robert Hillenbrand - a world authority on Islamic art and architecture - has written an unrivalled new synthesis of the arts of Islamic civilization. From the death of the Prophet Muhammad to the survival of the Ottoman Empire well into the modern age, Hillenbrand traces the evolution of an extraordinary range of art forms, including architecture, calligraphy, book illumination, painting, ceramics, glassware, textiles and metalwork. Complete with maps and glossary, this is an accessible and definitive guide to the arts of a vastly accomplished civilization.
Presenting qualitative and quantative findings from the unique, multi-disciplinary project, Design Matters?, this timely book explores the complex relationship between school design and practice to consider how environmental aspects impact on the day-to-day perceptions, actions and behaviours of pupils, teachers, leaders and professionals within the school community. Exploring debates and issues from a number of different professional and academic perspectives, School Design Matters results from a rich collaboration between schools, architects, engineers, educationalists and policymakers to consider what an inspiring teaching and learning environment might look like. Case studies and first-hand student and teacher experience allow analysis of the ways in which environmental factors might transform pedagogy, shape patterns of leadership, improve student engagement and enhance social interactions within and beyond the school community. Experts in their fields, authors acknowledge the significance of sociocultural contexts, reference relevant policy, and tackle the tensions, dilemmas and contradictions which frequently arise as schools and professionals in the design and construction sectors collaborate in the creation of buildings which fulfil the needs of diverse, invested parties. Offering a uniquely holistic approach to understanding the ways in which design may contribute, shape and mediate teaching and learning, this comprehensive text will be essential reading for educationalists, architects, policymakers and professionals involved in the design, construction and use of school buildings.
For forty years, Dietmar Steiner has been a leading voice in contemporary architecture. The founding director of the national architecture museum of Austria, the Architekturzentrum Wien, he has served as a consultant, sat on the jury of many prestigious architecture and urban design prizes, and acted as commissioner of the Austrian Pavilion at the International Architecture Exhibition of the 2002 Venice Biennale. Throughout his career, he has also lectured at universities and written widely as a scholar and critic. Capping a remarkable and still influential career, Steiner's Diary is the most comprehensive collection of his writings to date, including some previously unpublished pieces. The book includes lectures; interviews; articles published in daily newspapers and magazines, and longer essays on a variety of topics. Steiner brings to his work a keen critical acumen that draws on decades of travel, research, and contact with renowned international architects, such as Rob Krier, Hermann Czech, Herzog & de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, Lacaton+Vassal, Jon Jerde, Rural Studio, Wang Shu, or Alexander Brodsky. At the same time, his articles and essays are often amplified by personal observations and experiences. While paying tribute to a prolific scholar and critic, Steiner's Diary takes readers through four decades of architectural history that represent some of the discipline's most fascinating historical developments. It will be welcomed by architects, architectural historians, and anyone with an interest in architecture's role in society today. |
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