3 comments about Greek and Roman Architecture in Classic Illustrations.

1. If you are interested in classical architecture and/or ornament, this is a truly spectacular work at an unbeatable price.



2. This is a great collection of classical Greek and Roman architectural reconstructions from the book - "Fragments d'Architecture Antique" - published by Hector d'Espouy (1854-1929) in 1905. The book presents some of the drawings rendered by participants in the French "Prix de Rome" art and architecture scholarship program which ran from 1663 to 1968.
   
   The printing is not excellent, but very good considering the price. The selections show a true care and attention to detail in bringing these design elements back to life. The ancient world was amazing, in a way that we often ignore today in our modern age of machinery and computer-aided design. Certainly, we're more advanced in many areas. But take a good, long look at what these earlier socieities created out of stone, with simple tools, and you'll be quite impressed.
   
   There is a more expensive book on this subject, published by the J. Paul Getty Museum, entitled "Ruins of Ancient Rome: The Drawings of French Architects Who Won the Prix De Rome 1786-1924" that manages to outdo this one in my opinion. But considering the price difference, this is understandable. In any case, I still enjoy this book, as it presents Greek elements not present in the other. You'll see studies of the Parthenon, the Precinct of Demeter at Eleusis, the Temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, and so on. You'll also take a brief look outside Greece and Rome to the Mausoleum of Mausolus at Halicarnassus.
   
   Overall, this is an excellent view into the architectural world of the ancients.



3. the illustrations in this book are amazing, better than any photo.the buildings are depticted as they were when they were built (reconstructed). highly recommended for anyone interested in classical architecture (especially the architecture student).

1 comments about Introduction to Japanese Architecture (Periplus Asian Architecture Series).

1. IF you want 51 more colored photographs, 32 of which are 1- to 2-page spreads, 10 of which are 1/2- to 3/4th-page ones, IF you want what adds up to an additional 3.5 pages of text, THEN you will probably prefer Art of Japanese Architecture, David and Michiko Young's 2007 revision of this book.
   
   If, however, you opt for INTRODUCTION TO JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE, you will still get an excellent overview of the entire history of Japanese architecture. Granted, you will not learn, for example, that since this book was written, a particular site is now a National Treasure or that each sliding door handle of a particular mansion bears the design of the imperial chrysanthemum or that the cost of rethatching a roof is now the equivalent of up to half-a million U.S. dollars. But these are mere details, not major revisions.
   
   Nor, if you opt for INTRO, will you be lacking illustrations, for it does have 320, all in color. In fact, with the exception of the added 51 photos, a handful of photos retaken at a different angle and 9 other minor changes, the illustrations are the same as they are in ART.
   
   If you wish more information, please see my review of ART. I have also included the Table of Contents of both books in the following comment.

2 comments about Wardway Homes, Bungalows, and Cottages, 1925.

1. Yes, I'm partial to Stickley's designs, but these are the four-squares and bungalows I see more of on both coasts.
   If you own a bungalow, four-square, Colonial, or cottage of this period and would like to restore some of its original character, this is a good reference book.
   The exterior views include details such as landscaping.
   Interior photos, meant to highlight the choices in millwork and such, give a taste of the fashions in decorating.
   Toward the end of the book are plans for beach cottages and garages that might inspire a humble retreat or workshop, or perhaps a playhouse or doghouse.
   The final pages are ads for the kinds of light fixtures and plumbing fixtures your grandparents likely got rid of in past updates of their houses, and furnaces such as the hulking monster that remained in the basement of a house I rented in Bristol.
   Whether you get practical use from this book or not, you will probably enjoy it.



2. I'm a bit surprised to see that Dover chose the 1925 Montgomery Ward catalog to reprint, as they also did the 1923 Gordon Van Tine catalog and these companies were closely linked.
   
   In fact, unlike Sears, Montgomery Ward did not have their own mills, lumber yards, architectural staff, designers, etc., so they turned to Gordon Van Tine (based in Davenport, Iowa) to supply their homes. In other words, when you placed an order for a cute little kit home from Montgomery Ward, they placed the order with Gordon Van Tine.
   
   When your house arrived (in about 30,000 pieces, via boxcar), the shipping labels would read "Montgomery Ward" and the kit would have (probably) shipped from the GVT mill in Davenport.
   
   If you have both catalogs (GVT and MW) compare them side by side and you'll see that they're virtually identical, with names and identifying marks changed in all the right places.
   
   That being said, this is a dandy little catalog and if you suspect you have a kit home from Montgomery Ward, you may also want to invest in the GVT (1923) catalog that Dover offers.
   
   Rose
   author, The Houses That Sears Built
   co-author, California's Kit Homes

1 comments about The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War.

1. In 1993, the lovely 16th century Ottoman Stari Most Bridge in Mostar was shelled and broken by Croat gunners. It had been a landmark and a beloved Bosnian cultural totem. "Mostar" means "bridge-keeper", and the bridge had connected two sides of the most cosmopolitan city in Bosnia, one Ottoman old side and one heterodox new side. The city took pride that it had the highest rate of mixed Croat-Serb-Muslim marriages. The bridge was a symbol, and its destruction was a symbol, and is the abiding image of the Croatian war. In _The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War_ (Reaktion Books), Robert Bevan quotes Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulic, who wonders, "Why do we feel more pain looking at the image of the destroyed bridge than the image of massacred people?" The answer Drakulic comes up with is that we feel our own mortality, and we expect our lives to end, but everyone expected the bridge to outlive the humans who loved it. "A dead woman is one of us," Drakulic writes, "but the bridge is all of us forever." The bridge is but one of the stories in this sad and fascinating book. Bevan, who has edited _Building Design_ and written about architecture in various forums, has drawn on many examples to demonstrate that while attention must obviously be paid first to human casualties of war, the destruction of buildings and monuments is also a major crime. Because of the permanence we attribute to buildings, they foster "the creation of social identity located in time and place". Their destruction has effects on future communities and communal memory. The destruction is also evidence of crimes against humanity, including genocide.
   
   It is true that such destruction has always gone on in human conflict, but Bevan makes the case that it was in the past century that war on architecture, "the destruction of the cultural artefacts of an enemy people or nation as a means of dominating, terrorising, dividing or eradicating it altogether", has become monstrously pursued. Bevan is not writing about collateral damage which happens in any war, but has one example after another, like the Mostar bridge, to show how deliberate is the destruction of buildings and monuments by combatants on the offensive, and how devastating the results might be. Religious buildings still seem to be particular targets (with libraries and museums also selected for particular destruction). In the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Catholic Croat and Serbian Orthodox structures did not escape targeting, but the Bosnian Muslims had the most severe losses. Here are before and after photographs showing mosques and then the ruins or car parks that has become of them. This is not mere aggression. In the town of Zvornik, once 60% Muslim with a dozen mosques, the mayor declared, "There never were any mosques in Zvornik." Destroying such pesky reminders is a way of controlling the present by controlling history (and it is no surprise that George Orwell is frequently cited here).
   
   The examples are from all over. Israelis and Palestinians, of course, use history and archeology to promote politics, and are literally undermining each other's buildings by tunneling beneath them. "Bomber" Harris meditated on the destruction of the medieval city L?beck, saying it was "more like a firelighter than a human habitation." The communists destroyed churches in Russia, and China continues to obliterate the buildings connected to Tibetan worship and culture. The Taliban destroyed the colossal 1,500-year-old Buddhas in 2001, after having forced local people to plant the explosives. Of course the destroyed World Trade Center is here. Not everything in Bevan's book is about destruction; he also examines the construction of walls, in Berlin, of course, but also in Belfast and Israel. There is also reconstruction, which presents further historical and cultural problems. Some bombed out cities in Europe have taken a "Disneyfication" approach, trying to fashion city centers into the way they looked hundreds of years ago. The military could rapidly make repairs to the Pentagon, but the repairs to the World Trade Center site remain controversial as rebuilders and memorializers battle over the appropriate use of a very valuable piece of real estate. Bevan has not just accumulated examples of politically-motivated obliteration of buildings, but calls for a change; we cannot forget human lives lost, but we need, he concludes, a separate crime of "cultural genocide." His quietly angry book will convince any reader that warring against architecture makes losers of us all.

No comments about Herzog & de Meuron 1997-2001: The Complete Works, Volume 4.

No comments about Luxury Toys Classic Cars.

No comments about Topologies: The Urban Utopia in France, 1960-1970.

No comments about Façades: Principles of Construction.

No comments about Energy Manual: Sustainable Architecture (Construction Manuals (englisch)).

1 comments about Feng Shui: The Living Earth Manual.

1. If this is a reprint or revised edition of Stephen Skinner's original book of the same name - published in 1982 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd - then the reader is in for a special treat. I learned the principles of Feng Shui from a Chinese friend in the 1980s. Most of my instruction came in the form of gestures and drawings, as she spoke little English and I understood no Chinese. To augment what I considered a fascinating introduction to ancient principles little known in the U.S. at that time, I turned to the best (British) book I could find - Stephen Skinner's "The Living Earth Manual of Feng Shui."
   
   As the practice became popular (indeed, commercialized) in America, many systems were introduced here in simplified and sometimes questionable form. When I want to review a principle or discuss Feng Shui with a novice, I tend to pass over the various newer books on my shelves and turn once again to Skinner. My daughter and son-in-law have just bought a summer home that they plan to extensively remodel. My housewarming gift? A copy of the original edition of this sometimes obscure but overall illuminating book.