1 comments about Zoomscape: Architecture in Motion and Media.

1. Zoomscape is a terrific read. Unlike most architecture books the writing is very accessible. Not too theoretical but engaged with important ideas nonetheless.
   The book captures the way we move through the world. Its unique perspective on perception changed the way I look at architecture. Schwarzer helped me see in a way I hadn't seen before by making connections between so many things. The book weaves cultural and popular and historical elements into a coherent flowing story. I loved the way Zoomscape includes observations from literature, film, and cultural theory. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand architecture better and see how it is part of our daily lives. And since the book covers movement so much I felt as if I had gone on a journey myself.

2 comments about Florence: The City and Its Architecture.

1. While spending a week in Florence in April, visiting many museums that do not allow interior photographs, I noticed this book in a museum gift shop. I copied the ISBN and purchased from Amazon once I arrived home so I could avoid carting books home and getting a very good price from Amazon. The book is beautiful and provided insight into a city that has evolved over many centuries.



2. Florence: The City And Its Architecture by architect and architectural historian Richard Goy is an astounding, profusely illustrated coffee table book showcasing the architectural majesty of this proud Italian city. Filled from cover to cover with superb color photographs of some of Florence's most eye-catching, stately, and historical treasures of architectural excellence, the extensive and informative text takes the reader on a memorable tour through the city as well as its architectural history. Florence: The City And Its Architecture is an enthusiastically recommended addition to any academic Architectural History collection, and would make a superb choice as a Memorial Acquisition title for public library systems as well.

2 comments about Eating Architecture.

1. Although what a book says is perhaps the most pressing sphere in which to evaluate it, the way those words are presented can sometimes, sadly, eclipse the content.
   
   This is one of those unfortunate books, cast asunder before it was even fully born. The crime: body text in sans-serif! And not only that, but on glossy pages. I could almost handle the typeface, but it does, truly, give me a headache. Add in the somewhat patchy editing and it makes for a lot of frustration.
   
   A fascinating book with fascinating content. If only I could read it for more than a few minutes at a time. If, like me, you are one of those who refuses to purchase books printed in horrible, difficult-to-read fonts: this is one of them.



2. Editors Horwitz and Singley have assembled a delectable recipe of essays that graze on an admixture of architecture and food. Highly recommended.

No comments about Urban Ecology.

1 comments about Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism.

1. Already recognized since 1949 as "a masterpiece in scholarship" in its field by several eminent architects, the 173 page tome: ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES IN THE AGE OF HUMANISM, 4th ed. (1971) by Rudolf Wittkower; had, incidentally, also provided an in-depth explanation on proportion and ratio as they differed in usage between architectural procedure and Boethian mathematics.
   Of special importance is part four 'The Problem of Harmonic Proportion in Architecture' (p. 101) where the author made the salient point that "Although the Pythagoreo-Platonic concept of the numerical ratios of the musical scale never disappeared from mediaeval [sic], theological, philosophical, and aesthetic thought, there was no over-riding need to apply them to art and architecture" (p. 159).

   Rudolf Wittkower unknowingly provided in part four the distinction between an elite Quadrivium education containing Boethian "mathematical arts" while "the 'liberal arts' of painting, sculpture, and architecture were regarded as manual occupations" (p. 117). The author explained "That the high Renaissance architects shunned theory" and "that they were practitioners rather than thinkers" (p. 30). And further "Italian architects strove for an easily perceptible ratio between length, height, and depth" (p. 74). So then according to this author, all of the Renaissance architects conception of architecture was based on a "commensurability of ratios" (p. 108).

   Rudolf Wittkower indicated "that the [Renaissance] architect is by no means free to apply to a building a system of ratios of his own choosing, that the ratios have to comply with conceptions of a higher order and that a building should mirror the proportions of the human body" (p. 101). In developing the centrally planned church, Renaissance architects faced the dilemma of the pragmatics of church construction combined with the belief in divinity and the acceptance of Roman Catholic dogma.

   The Church was to provide the "easily perceptible ratio" with the simple logic that "As man is the image of God and the proportions of his body are produced by divine will, so the proportions in architecture have to embrace and express the cosmic order" (p. 101). That cosmic order and harmony are contained in certain numbers Plato explained in his TIMAEUS.

   Assigned to the architects, a Quadrivium trained Roman Catholic friar and musical theorist, Franchino Gaffurio (1451-1522) "in a truly Platonic spirit he regarded this principle of harmony as the basis of macrocosm and microcosm, body and soul, painting, architecture, and medicine" (p. 124). It was under this famous Renaissance musical theorist in 1525 that "the old belief in the mysterious efficacy of certain numbers and ratios was given new impetus" (p. 102). "It was Pythagoras who discovered that tones can be measured in space. What he found was that musical consonances were determined by the ratios of small whole numbers. If two strings are made to vibrate under the same conditions, one being half the length of the other, the pitch of the shorter string will be one octave (diapason) above that of the larger one" (p. 102). "Thus the consonances, on which the Greek musical system was based - octave, fifth, and fourth - can be expressed by the progression 1:2:3:4. One can understand that this staggering discovery made people believe that they had seized upon the mysterious harmony which pervades the universe" (p. 103).

   "The musical consonances are determined by the mean proportionals; for that the three means constitute all the intervals of the musical scale had been shown in the TIMAEUS. Classical writers on musical theory discussed this point at great length. An exhaustive exposition is to be found in Boethius' DE MUSICA, first printed in Venice in 1491-92, and of very great importance for the doctrine of numbers throughout the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance" (p. 111).

   Yet Boethius's DE MUSICA was de-emphasized by Renaissance architects in recognition that the "harmony of the universe which Plato had described in the TIMAEUS on the basis of Pythagora's discovery of the ratios of musical consonances" prompted the "application of Pythagoreo-Platonic system of harmonic ratios directly to architecture" (p. 125). As it turned out (not surprisingly) "Gafurio [sic] was regarded by his contemporaries as a critic in architectural matters" (p. 125).

   The author of ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES IN THE AGE OF HUMANISM provided the evidence that although the Quadrivium of the mathematical arts of music, astronomy, geometry, and Boethian proportion and ratio, was known to the Renaissance high architects, they preferred the 'harmonic proportion'; 'proportion of excess'; and the 'proportio proportionum'; derived directly from Plato's TIMAEUS and Pythagoras's three means (arithmetic, geometric, and the harmonic) over Boethius's DE MUSICA, though it was a substantial part of friar Gaffurio's ecclesiastical education. This resulted in "proportionally integrated 'spatial mathematics', which we have recognized as a distinguishing feature of humanist Renaissance architecture" (p. 26).

   In comparison, for the practical application of Boethian proportion and ratios, please read: THE PHILOSOPHER'S GAME (2001) by Dr. Ann E. Moyer, where the rules of Boethian proportion found in rithmomachia, had been clearly defined, though inadvertently, by Rudolf Wittkower.

1 comments about Architecture: Choice or Fate.

1. Leon Krier is one the two or three greatest architects and urbanists of our time. In this book, he outlines a profound and at the same time sensible approach to the built environment. Krier is the winner of the Richard Driehaus Prize for Classical and Traditional Architecture (the equivalent prize to the Pritzker, but meant for buildings fit for human beings and human sensibilities). I doubt that anyone -- from layperson, to beginning architecture student, to practicing architect hardened by years of practice -- will not be moved by its message, and will not immediately react by a sudden comprehension of what architecture and urbanism are really about.
   
   After reading this book, any architect can begin to move towards creating a humane built environment. Krier gives the essentials that everyone can develop further. Once his philosophy (and it is a philosophy of universal respect for human sensibilities) is understood, then its application is straightforward. The only problem is the numerous obstacles that have been put into place by the architectural establishment.
   
   At the same time, Krier's message is bound to bring an almost violent reaction at the massive brainwashing that society has been subjected to in order to promote a small group of anti-architects. How could we have ignored methods of building structures that make our lives more pleasant and more human, in order to support arrogant and unworkable dreams? Furthermore, in something very much akin to a Ponzi pyramid scheme, unworkable buildings have been propped up by increasingly convoluted pseudo-philosophical jargon (not to mention prestigious prizes). Krier cuts through all of that nonsense like VIM cuts through kitchen grease.
   
   There are some indications that we are due for a massive, revolutionary change in architectural paradigm. Like octogenarian dictators due to meet their well-deserved date with the afterworld, the architecture of bizzarre images is overdue for a collapse. Leon Krier's book is one of the pillars of the new architecture that will replace the old and worn-out deceptions.

2 comments about Roman Art and Architecture (World of Art).

1. This is an excellent read and also a must to have in your library. The author disusses in great depth various Roman structures. In many of the sites, he goes into detail about where the material would come from, whether it was trade or something made from the city's natural sources, and also discusses influences among the Greeks and the Romans.



2. A perfect guide for roman mania interested in more than merely picture of its monumentum, this book contains colourful images of various types of ROMAN architecture scattered around its territory with plain explanation. And the book's hand-carry size makes your reading more confortable.

2 comments about Judging Architectural Value: A Harvard Design Magazine Reader (Harvard Design Magazine).

1. This is a great collection of essays, mostly from the late 1990's, that raise a number of serious questions for architects and critics. Some of the contributors deal with questions of value in abstract terms while others focus on specific projects to draw out issues. Saunders own essay is a good review of contemporary architectural criticism. I highly recommend this to students or practicing professionals struggling with questions about what makes architecture "good."



2. Edited by William S. Saunders (Assistant Dean, Harvard University's Graduate School of Design), Judging Architectural Value is an anthology of essays by experienced authors seeking to answer the questions: what do people value in architecture, how do changing values affect opinions about architecture? From "Why Are Some Buildings More Interesting Than Others?" to "Learning from St. Louis: The Arch, the Canon, and Bourdieu" to "Eyesore or Art? On Tyree Guyton's Heidelberg Project", the essays offer a scholarly, measured debate, and ultimately indicate that making judgments about architecture involves much more than aesthetic sensibility. Especially recommended as a "big picture" supplement for professionals and aspiring architects.

No comments about Victorian Architecture (World of Art).

4 comments about The Story of Architecture.

1. I was looking for a readable inroduction to varied styles and history of architecture that was jargon free but not overly simplified. This book did the job well. Perhaps Glancey could have provided a bit more text to go along with the beautiful pictures, but he still informs.
   
   Recommended for newcomers or those with an incomplete education in the field of architecture.



2. THis is a very, very good introduction to the complexities of architecture, at about the freshman level of college. Starting with the dawn of civilization (in what is now Iraq), Glancey takes the reader on a tour of human history from the angle of what we build to worship, work, and live in. THe basics are covered extremely well, providing a context for further research.

   Glancey writes with grace and clarity, dividing each major movement into regular cuts of two pages, each with brilliant images. While this format shoehorns things into categories that are a bit too sharply delineated, that kind of reductionism is a necessity in this kind of survey. In the latter part of the book, some of the distinctions appear artificial, but then we are in a period where no dominating style - you get post-modern, decontructivist, and organic, etc. - has emerged and the author had to make some decisions regarding how to put them in the format. To his credit, Glancey does not ignore the exceptions and quirks.

   One thing I enjoyed about the book is that Glancey does not shy away from making strikingly loud judgements, many of which I did not share. Corbusier, he writes, "was the most inventive and poetic architect who ever lived." Now that is strong stuff and I would never have expected it in a routine survey! (While I can respect and understand what Corbusier did, I don't love it like Glancey.) But that is what makes this book more than a run of the mill overview - it adds flavor and stimulates. Also, while international, because Glancey is a Brit, much of it focuses on Britain and contemporary Europe, which provides a valuable contrast to more US-centric views.

   Recommended.




3. Great book to review the history of architecture, it is concise and well illustrated.



4. As a freshman architecture student, this book was exactly at my level. The photographs are splendid, and the dialogue informative. This book provides a complete history of architecture in every area of the world, as well as some theory. Great for anyone truly interested in architecture, but not an expert (yet!)