Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, And MeaningThis clearly written, fully illustrated survey of Western architecture defines and explains structure, function, history, and meaning. Architecture is examined as a cultural phenomenon as well as an artistic and technological achievement. The book is divided into two parts: Part One, “The Elements of Architecture,” deals with the basic properties of architecture in chapters that explain function, structural principles, and elements of design, including examples in the text and illustrations from all periods and styles. Part Two, “The History and Meaning of Architecture,” is a chronological survey of Western architectural development from prehistoric times to the present. The approach is selective in terms of buildings and architects included; the examples are chosen for their importance and significance and are fully explained. Each chronological chapter begins with a concise, historical outline giving the social and cultural background. The illustrations (photographs, drawings, maps, and plans) are integrated with the text and there are notes, suggested readings, a glossary, chronological chart, and index. |
Contents
Architecture the Unavoidable Art | 1 |
How Does the Building Function? | 9 |
How Does the Building Stand Up? | 19 |
Copyright | |
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Aerial view Akropolis Alberti ancient arcade arch archi architects architecture Art Resource Athens Baroque barrel vaults basilica beam blocks Brunelleschi building built cathedral central century chamber chapel Chicago church Classical color columns concrete construction Corbusier created cultural curved dome Doric Doric order Drawing Egypt Egyptian Empire England entablature facade feet Filippo Brunelleschi floor Florence France Frank Lloyd Wright French function Germany Gothic Gothic architecture Greece Greek Gropius Hagia Sophia Hall human Interior Italy Johann Balthasar Neumann Latin Le Corbusier Leland Roth light Lloyd Lewis House London medieval ment meters modern monastery Museum nave Notre-Dame ornament Palace Paris Parthenon Pavilion Philip Johnson Photo Piazza piers pilasters pyramid Renaissance Rohe Roman Roman architecture Rome roof Saint Gall Saint Peter's sculpture Section shape side space square stone structural symbolic tecture temple Theater tion towers truss ture Villa Vitruvius walls York