3 comments about How Architecture Got Its Hump.

1. I don't mean to be argumentative, but the book produces no clear argument because none can be produced. It is about as solid an effort as can be made - using words to refer to what words cannot fully express, contain, etc.



2. This is exactly the kind of book I have been looking for - someone who attempts to tackle all the diverse fields which have had an influence on architecture, from language, philosophy to film. In terms of writing style, this book is virtually impenetrable: and it is so fill with asides and witticisms that one can't even pick up an intelligent thread. It oozes refernces but no clear argument is produced. I forced my way to the end, but couldn't tell you what his argument really is.



3. How Architecture Got Its Hump explores architecture's influence on other disciplines, drawing some unusual links between photography, film, drawing and architecture and how these genres can widen the site and nature of architecture. These disciplines have contributed to new developments in architectural practice, and new ideas about the use and presentation of space: this explores just how.

No comments about Architecture Inside Out.

No comments about Oase No. 66: The Spaces Of Science Fiction And Cyberpunk (Oase).

1 comments about Morality and Architecture Revisited.

1. It doesn't seem as though there are many buyers for this book. It is just as well as David Watkin couldn't be any more wrong-headed about Modern architecture even if he made more of an effort to understand its principles. He charts the evolution of modern architectural thought from Pugin's classic text, Contrasts, published in 1836, to Nicholas Pevsner's
   Pioneers of Modern, published a century later. Along the way Mr. Watkin provides snippets of thought from some of the leading lights of the Modern movement, ranging from Viollet-le-Duc to Le Corbusier. Mr. Watkin does state that he in no way presents a full portrait of any one of these individuals, but is more or less culling from their copious texts to provide a commentary on the presumed thesis of a moral imperative in Modern architecture.

   The fallacy to this argument is that few architects and critics of this period saw architecture in moral terms, but rather in ethical terms. Pugin did give the idea of modern architecture an ecclesiastical spin, but Viollet-le-Duc and Le Corbusier both saw a modern movement along ethical lines, a truth in materials and forms of structural expression. These architects pointed to the major works in Greek and Gothic architecture as the ideological origins of a modern architecture.

   Few architectural historians would argue with this premise, except to say that the Renaissance was rather callously left out of the picture. After all, it too was a form of classical revival. But Mr. Watkin not only dishes the Modernists for their summary dismissal of Renaissance architecture, but for their rather short-sighted views on Greek and Gothic architecture.

   Morality and Architecture Revisited (first published in the 1970's) amounts to little more than a petty tirade against the Modern movement. Mr. Watkins seemed to be most upset with its rather confined historic view of Modern architecture and its various technological conceits. Mr. Watkins' text lacks any thorough examination on the subject, but rather presents a "cut-and-paste" of quotes excised from the various Modernist texts, which he chose to cross-examine as though Modern architecture were on trial.

   Modern architecture has survived the test of time. It attempted to resolve many of the pressing housing and municipal concerns that arose after World War I and grew to be a major shaper of cities in the wake of World War II. Its original socialist agenda was transmuted into many variants, including fascism, for good and for bad. What is needed are more holistic views of Modern Architecture, like that of William J.R. Curtis, rather than reprints of the rants against the machine that occurred in the 1960's and 70's.

No comments about Drafting Culture: A Social History of Architectural Graphic Standards.

1 comments about Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media.

1. The best way, somtimes, to talk about a larger condition is to delve into specifics. Colomina uses Loos and Corbusier to draw out comparisons about the use of information.
   
   Considering the amount of architectural monographs being churned out on a daily basis, and the creation of terms such as "information architecture," it's extremely valuable to look at how modern architecture might have started from an alliance between types of publicity and design.
   
   Both Loos and Corbusier come out, biography-wise, as extremely creepy, though shrewd in shaping how their work is percieved by the traces that they leave behind. In Corbusier's case, he leaves an archive stuffed with minutia, an overabundance of information to supplement the built work. Loos, on the other hand, leaves very little, and thus what little remains of his work requires imagination to fill gaps in his story. What a designer can gather from this is to ask the question: how does what we do effect what our work is? Colomina's work functions reflexively as well as she works from "evidence" to create representations of both architects.
   
   It is a compelling argument, passionately written, and not the least boring.

1 comments about Peter Gisolfi Associates: Finding the Place of Architecture in the Landscape (The Master Architect).

1. Architect Gisolfi makes a compelling case for architecture designed to befit the landscape. Of all the arts, Gisolfi maintains, architecture should be most tied to its place. He decries building designs that value trendy style over compatibility with nature, and lauds those that exist comfortably with the environment. This handsome book is filled with examples of his work, showing in detail how he dealt with varied landscape settings. Lots of color photographs, plus diagrams and concept drawings that clarify Gisolfi's design themes. A worthwhile volume for any serious architecture library.

No comments about Montreal in Evolution.

No comments about A Theory for Practice: Architecture in Three Discourses.

No comments about Learning Land Desktop 2005.