No comments about Southern Baroque Art - Painting-Architecture and Music in Italy and Spain of the 17th & 18th Centuries.

No comments about Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959: Building for Democracy (Taschen Basic Architecture).

1 comments about Claude-Nicolas Ledoux: Architecture and Utopia in the Era of the French Revolution.

1. An excellant account of Ledoux's work and life, beautifully designed and well illustrated.
   I can only quote from Elain Harwood's review in the Architects Journal of 17th August 2007:
   "Superficially a coffee-table glossy, this book has real depth. It explores both the physical and intellectual world of Ledoux's times- however, the man himself remains a shadow."
   Louis Hellman Architectural cartoonist

No comments about Architecture in Salem: An Illustrated Guide.

No comments about American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century.

No comments about Forts and Castles: Masterpieces of Architecture.

1 comments about Building the New World: Modern Architecture in Latin America.

1. From the very beginning, Europe's modernist architects had a burning need to prostelitize about the benefits of their new architectural style. Their socialist message of modernity with its emphasis on form following function, simplicity and economy found an eager audience in Latin America during the first half of the Twentieth Century.
   
   "Building the New World" follows the rise of modernist architecture in Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil with a special emphasis on the ideas of Le Corbusier. These countries became world leaders in the advancement of the modernist agenda. At the time, Latin America's modernist architecture was admired throughout the world. Today, Latin America's contribution to modern architecture is almost unknown outside of the region. Valerie Fraser does a good job of raising the question of what happened to this acclaim. Unfortunately, she does not do a decent job of answering the question which she posits at the beginning of her book.
   
   In the end, "Building the New World" is nothing more than a cursory survey of Latin American modernist architecture. The illustrations are meager and the analysis is superficial. The only good thing that I recommend about this book is that it can purchased used for around five dollars. There is not alot written in English about this period of architectural history and anyone who is interested in the period will probably have to purchase this book. Purchase a used copy. In addition, avoid Carlos Brillembourg's "Latin American Architecture 1929-1960", an even less substantial work of architectural history.

1 comments about The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance.

1. Now six years into the 21st century we should demand a general book on the architecture of the Italian Renaissance, in English, worthy of our time. Unfortunately this is not it.
   We have had classic books that have endured over generations and now are in need of revision and update, making room for more recent scholarship to assert itself and supplant these revered but outdated tomes. Books by Jacob Burckhardt, Peter Murray and Heinrich Klotz have dominated the English speaking market from the late 19th century until today.
   This book by Thames and Hudson gives us little that is new and in fact almost mocks us with their contempt. For certain Prof. Frommel is knowledgeable and a master of his subject but this is not enough. My disappointment in fact is not directed so much at the author who has proven his worth (see contributions in "The Renaissance from Brunnelleschi to Michelangelo" published by T&H in 1994) but at the publishers. The promise of the cover photographs is not met inside the book, which has b/w photos throughout and insufficient drawings for a work on Architecture (and indeed no new ones).
   Let us be clear, to experience the full polychromatic display of the interior of a renaissance palace is something never to be forgotten. We must therefore have full colour photos of the more important interiors of the Renaissance. Recent books reproducing the original drawings of masters of the past have understood that to copy them large and in full colour is to transmit the true majesty of the creation (books on Bernini's architecture and Leonardo's drawings amongst others).
   Knowledge and scholarship are very important but publishing values are equally important. The bar must be raised. If the target audience is architects or architectural students then the books must have clear plans, sections, elevations, sketches and diagrams to illustrate the buildings (eg. why not incorporate some of Letarouilly,s drawings of Roman buildings). They must also be accompanied by the best photos (these should be colour photos wherever possible unless historic b/w photos better illustrate the point) of the whole or the part, sufficient to illustrate the point being made.
   I suspect that for a work worthy of this century we need to tell the story in 2-4 large volumes and directed at the architect. The publishers and authors must do more work if they expect us to purchase their work and provide us with new, expanded and uplifting scholarship worthy of the 21st century.
   For this project Konemann remain my publishers of choice as they have consistently proven that they can produce works of a very high standard at an affordable price, without dropping their standards.
   Obviously I cannot recommend this book to potential purchasers especially not at the price quoted. I await the production in English of the definitive contemporary text(s) on the Architecture of the Italian Renaissance.

1 comments about West Coast Rooms: Contemporary Portfolios of 40 North American Interior Designers.

1. There is some great architecture in here! A lot of nice rooms, mostly contemporary/modern. Just great photos though, certainly not intended to be a how-to book.

No comments about The Dessau Bauhaus Building 1926-1999.