Download or read book Obsolescence written by Daniel M. Abramson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-02-12 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Things fall apart. But in his innovative, wide-ranging, and well-illustrated book, Daniel Abramson investigates the American definition of what falling apart entails. We build new buildings partly in response to demand, but even more because we believe that existing buildings are slowly becoming obsolete and need to be replaced. Abramson shows that our idea of obsolescence is a product of our tax code, which was shaped by lobbying from building interests who benefit from the idea that buildings depreciate and need to be replaced. The belief in depreciation is not held worldwide which helps explain why preservation movements struggle more in America than elsewhere. Abramson s tour of our idea of obsolescence culminates in an assessment of recent tropes of sustainability, which struggle to cultivate the idea that the greenest building is the one that already exists."
Download or read book Ornament written by Antoine Picon and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-05-29 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once condemned by Modernism and compared to a ‘crime’ by Adolf Loos, ornament has made a spectacular return in contemporary architecture. This is typified by the works of well-known architects such as Herzog & de Meuron, Sauerbruch Hutton, Farshid Moussavi Architecture and OMA. There is no doubt that these new ornamental tendencies are inseparable from innovations in computer technology. The proliferation of developments in design software has enabled architects to experiment afresh with texture, colour, pattern and topology. Though inextricably linked with digital tools and culture, Antoine Picon argues that some significant traits in ornament persist from earlier Western architectural traditions. These he defines as the ‘subjective’ – the human interaction that ornament requires in both its production and its reception – and the political. Contrary to the message conveyed by the founding fathers of modern architecture, traditional ornament was not meant only for pleasure. It conveyed vital information about the designation of buildings as well as about the rank of their owners. As such, it participated in the expression of social values, hierarchies and order. By bringing previous traditions in ornament under scrutiny, Picon makes us question the political issues at stake in today’s ornamental revival. What does it tell us about present-day culture? Why are we presently so fearful of meaning in architecture? Could it be that by steering so vehemently away from symbolism, contemporary architecture is evading any explicit contribution to collective values?
Download or read book Counterpreservation written by Daniela Sandler and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2016-12-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Berlin, decrepit structures do not always denote urban blight. Decayed buildings are incorporated into everyday life as residences, exhibition spaces, shops, offices, and as leisure space. As nodes of public dialogue, they serve as platforms for dissenting views about the future and past of Berlin. In this book, Daniela Sandler introduces the concept of counterpreservation as a way to understand this intentional appropriation of decrepitude. The embrace of decay is a sign of Berlin's iconoclastic rebelliousness, but it has also been incorporated into the mainstream economy of tourism and development as part of the city's countercultural cachet. Sandler presents the possibilities and shortcomings of counterpreservation as a dynamic force in Berlin and as a potential concept for other cities. Counterpreservation is part of Berlin's fabric: in the city's famed Hausprojekte (living projects) such as the Køpi, Tuntenhaus, and KA 86; in cultural centers such as the Haus Schwarzenberg, the Schokoladen, and the legendary, now defunct Tacheles; in memorials and museums; and even in commerce and residences. The appropriation of ruins is a way of carving out affordable spaces for housing, work, and cultural activities. It is also a visual statement against gentrification, and a complex representation of history, with the marks of different periods—the nineteenth century, World War II, postwar division, unification—on display for all to see. Counterpreservation exemplifies an everyday urbanism in which citizens shape private and public spaces with their own hands, but it also influences more formal designs, such as the Topography of Terror, the Berlin Wall Memorial, and Daniel Libeskind's unbuilt redevelopment proposal for a site peppered with ruins of Nazi barracks. By featuring these examples, Sandler questions conventional notions of architectural authorship and points toward the value of participatory environments.
Download or read book A History of American Architecture written by Mark Gelernter and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why did the colonial Americans give over a significant part of their homes to a grand staircase? Why did the Victorians drape their buildings ornate decoration? And why did American buildings grow so tall in the last decades of the 19th century. This book explores the history of American architecture from prehistoric times to the present, explaining why characteristic architectural forms arose at particular times and in particular places.
Download or read book Making Dystopia written by James Stevens Curl and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-23 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Making Dystopia, distinguished architectural historian James Stevens Curl tells the story of the advent of architectural Modernism in the aftermath of the First World War, its protagonists, and its astonishing, almost global acceptance after 1945. He argues forcefully that the triumph of architectural Modernism in the second half of the twentieth century led to massive destruction, the creation of alien urban landscapes, and a huge waste of resources. Moreover, the coming of Modernism was not an inevitable, seamless evolution, as many have insisted, but a massive, unparalled disruption that demanded a clean slate and the elimination of all ornament, decoration, and choice. Tracing the effects of the Modernist revolution in architecture to the present, Stevens Curl argues that, with each passing year, so-called 'iconic' architecture by supposed 'star' architects has become more and more bizarre, unsettling, and expensive, ignoring established contexts and proving to be stratospherically remote from the aspirations and needs of humanity. In the elite world of contemporary architecture, form increasingly follows finance, and in a society in which the 'haves' have more and more, and the 'have-nots' are ever more marginalized, he warns that contemporary architecture continues to stack up huge potential problems for the future, as housing costs spiral out of control, resources are squandered on architectural bling, and society fractures. This courageous, passionate, deeply researched, and profoundly argued book should be read by everyone concerned with what is around us. Its combative critique of the entire Modernist architectural project and its apologists will be highly controversial to many. But it contains salutary warnings that we ignore at our peril. And it asks awkward questions to which answers are long overdue.
Download or read book Non referential Architecture written by Valerio Olgiati and published by Park Publishing (WI). This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Non-Referential Architecture is a manifesto on a new kind of architecture. Non-Referential Architecture presents a new framework for architecture in a world that is increasingly free of ideologies. We have left behind the values of multicultural postmodernity! Non-Referential Architecture offers unlimited possibilities for the liberated mind.
Download or read book A Concise History of Architectural Styles written by Emily Cole and published by Herbert Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This beautiful book explores the development of architecture around the world from the ancient civilisations of Egypt and the Near East through the Industrial Revolution. It presents a diverse series of building styles and architectural detailing which will fascinate and delight everyone who is interested in buildings and how they have developed over the years. The book is illustrated with drawings and beautifully detailed engraved plates. Most of these are from early sources, and their extended captions provide a comprehensive naming of architectural elements. The captions are also a useful guide to architectural terminology. The book is a must for anyone interested in the story of architecture.
Download or read book A History of Architecture in 100 Buildings written by Dan Cruickshank and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring over 200 photographs, this stunning book by renowned television historian Dan Cruickshank tells the history of architecture through the stories of 100 iconic buildings
Download or read book What is Architectural History written by Andrew Leach and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is Architectural History? considers the questions and problems posed by architectural historians since the rise of the discipline in the late nineteenth century. How do historians of architecture organise past time and relate it to the present? How does historical evidence translate into historical narrative? Should architectural history be useful for practicing architects? If so, how? Leach treats the disciplinarity of architectural history as an open question, moving between three key approaches to historical knowledge of architecture: within art history, as an historical specialisation and, most prominently, within architecture. He suggests that the confusions around this question have been productive, ensuring a rich variety of approaches to the project of exploring architecture historically. Read alongside introductory surveys of western and global architectural history, this book will open up questions of perspective, frame, and intent for students of architecture, art history, and history. Graduate students and established architectural historians will find much in this book to fuel discussions over the current state of the field in which they work.
Download or read book London written by Anthony Sutcliffe and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London is one of the world’s greatest cities, and its architecture is a unique heritage. The Tower of London is an urban castle unique in Europe, St Paul’s is one of the world’s greatest domed cathedrals, and the squares and crescents of the West End inspired Haussmann’s Paris. In London, it is the variety of the streets, buildings, and parks that strikes the visitor. No king or government has ever set its mark here. Private ownership has shaped the city, and architects have served a wide variety of clients. London’s Classical era produced an elegant townscape between 1600 and 1830, but medieval, Tudor, and Victorian London were a potpourri of buildings large and small, each making its own design statement. In London: An Architectural History Anthony Sutcliffe takes the reader through two thousand years of architecture from the sublime to the mundane. With over 300 color illustrations the book is intended for the general reader and especially those visiting London for the first time.
Download or read book Architecture written by Barnabas Calder and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2021-07-01 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking history of architecture told through the relationship between buildings and energy The story of architecture is the story of humanity. The buildings we live in, from the humblest pre-historic huts to today's skyscrapers, reveal our priorities and ambitions, our family structures and power structures. And to an extent that hasn't been explored until now, architecture has been shaped in every era by our access to energy, from fire to farming to fossil fuels. In this ground-breaking history of world architecture, Barnabas Calder takes us on a dazzling tour of some of the most astonishing buildings of the past fifteen thousand years, from Uruk, via Ancient Rome and Victorian Liverpool, to China's booming megacities. He reveals how every building - from the Parthenon to the Great Mosque of Damascus to a typical Georgian house - was influenced by the energy available to its architects, and why this matters. Today architecture consumes so much energy that 40% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from the construction and running of buildings. If we are to avoid catastrophic climate change then now, more than ever, we need beautiful but also intelligent buildings, and to retrofit - not demolish - those that remain. Both a celebration of human ingenuity and a passionate call for greater sustainability, this is a history of architecture for our times.
Download or read book Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture written by Cyril M. Harris and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-02-28 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This massive compendium contains over 2,000 line drawings, and clear, concise definitions for over 5,000 important terms relating to the architectural achievements of a great variety of world cultures, ancient to modern.
Download or read book Pictorial Encyclopedia of Historic Architectural Plans Details and Elements written by John Theodore Haneman and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-09-19 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sourcebook of inspiration for architects, designers, others. 1880 line drawings on 70 plates. Bibliography. Captions.
Download or read book Building Reuse written by Kathryn Rogers Merlino and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2018-06-01 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to reimagine existing buildings to create a more sustainable future The construction and operation of buildings is responsible for 41 percent of all primary energy use and 48 percent of all carbon emissions, and the impact of the demolition and removal of an older building can greatly diminish the advantages of adding green technologies to new construction. In Building Reuse, Kathryn Rogers Merlino makes an impassioned case that truly sustainable design requires reusing and reimagining existing buildings. Additionally, Merlino calls for a more expansive view of preservation that goes beyond keeping only the most distinctive structures based on their historical and cultural significance to embrace the creative reuse of even unremarkable buildings for their environmental value. Building Reuse includes a compelling range of case studies—from a private home to an eighteen-story office building—all located in the Pacific Northwest, a region with a long history of sustainable design and urban growth policies that have made reuse projects feasible. Reusing existing buildings can be challenging to accomplish, but changing the way we think about environmentally conscious architecture has the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption, carbon emissions, and waste.
Download or read book The Rise of Architectural History written by David Watkin and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Lost Providence written by David Brussat and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2017 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dave Brussat has made a significant contribution to the history of Providence. For those interested in that history, Lost Providence is a real find. Providence Journal Providence has one of the nation's most intact historic downtowns and is one of America's most beautiful cities. The history of architectural change in the city is one of lost buildings, urban renewal plans and challenges to preservation. The Narragansett Hotel, a lost city icon, hosted many famous guests and was demolished in 1960. The American classical renaissance expressed itself in the Providence National Bank, tragically demolished in 2005. Urban renewal plans such as the Downtown Providence plan and the College Hill plan threatened the city in the mid-twentieth century. Providence eventually embraced its heritage through plans like the River Relocation Project that revitalized the city's waterfront and the Downcity Plan that revitalized its downtown. Author David Brussat chronicles the trials and triumphs of Providence's urban development.
Download or read book American Architectural History written by Keith Eggener and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a collection of recent writings on architecture and urbanism in the United States, with topics ranging from colonial to contemporary times.
