Venice : The City and It's Architecture
Book Description
The author has certainly accomplished what he set out to do, "The purpose of this book is twofold: to provide a comprehensive discussion of the principal paths of architectural development, but also to put the buildings into their physical, historical and social context. Venice's architectural histoy is incomprehensible without some appreciation of its political and historical origins and its urban development. The question I am asked far more frequently than any other, in discussing Venice's architectural history, 'Why was the city built here at all?'. The second question, equally invariably, is 'How was it built?' (from the introduction)
The book is obviously the careful work of a historian with both great love and understanding of his subject. The writing is often rather dense, but the material is fascinating, the reader is rewarded with the pleasure obtained from reading good, balanced scholarship, while gaining knowledge and understanding of the architectural history of Venice.
The reader should know, however, that this is not a general/comprehensive history of the city, the author has wisely elected to approach his subject in a topical rather than chronological manor. He prefers to concentrate on significant examples rather than produce a comprehensive but shallow history. The reader would cirtainly benefit from first reading one of the many general political/social/cultural histories of Venice.
The book meets or exceeds the high production values typical of Phaidon Press Limited. The text is generously supported with innumerable color and b&w reproductions of artwork, plans, maps and contemporary photographs.
Book Description
Gorgeously illustrated with new color photographs, this book offers the first definitive look at the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr., (1890-1978), known as Lloyd Wright, who had a long, successful but generally overlooked career in Southern California. 595 illustrations, 428 in color.
Could there be anything more to say about the 20th century's most written-about architect? Landscape architecture professor Charles Aguar (Univ. of Georgia) and wife Berdeana find a fresh perspective by examining
Frank Lloyd Wright's work through the eyes of environmentally conscious landscape designers. Backed by a decade's fieldwork, interviews, and archival sleuthing, the authors offer highly informed critiques of 85 designs that span
Wright's 70-year career. Familiar buildings are seen in an entirely new light as the authors scrutinize each structure's interrelationship with its grounds, plantings, and "hardscape" the terraces, walls, and planters Wright used to anchor his buildings to their settings. They emphasize
Wright's prescient advocacy of sound environmental planning. Unfortunately, the Aguars' penchant for speculation sometimes leads to head-scratching conclusions
Wright as feng-shui master? and the book's cramped typeface, eye-straining illustrations, and perfunctory index detract from a text that deserves much better presentation. However, by and large, this lucid, solidly researched analysis will open new avenues of appreciation and inquiry for
Wright fans and scholars. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries, and wherever there is an interest in green architecture and sustainable landscapes.
Book Description
Here is the first book to examine the environmental landscape designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, probably the world's best known and most influential architect. WRIGHTSCAPES analyzes 85 of his works, and pays particular attention to site planning, landscape design, community scale, and regional planning.
The authors include many original diagrams, rare archival material, and some 200 photographs, many never published before. WRIGHTSCAPES also chronicles how and way Wright's famous ecological sensabilities were established and how his design aspirations went far beyond accepted definitions of architecture.
WRIGHTSCAPES is ideal for required or supplemental reading within many curriculums of architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning or urban design.
Book description
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Book description
Contemporary trompe l'oeil artist Richard Haas transforms the drab exteriors of neglected buildings into breath-taking facades. "The City is my Canvas" documents his important projects of the last two decades in lavish double-page spreads which illustrate the 'before' and 'after' phases of each site.
About the Author
Sharon E. J. Gerstel is Associate Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology at the University of Maryland.
Julie A. Lauffenburger is Senior Objects Conservator at the Walters Art Museum.
Book Description
During the tenth and eleventh centuries, splendid Byzantine buildings were enriched by colorful ceramic tiles decorated with an impressive range of figural and ornamental patterns. Despite their widespread use, traces of this important decorative medium have, for the most part, disappeared. Relegated to museum storerooms, hidden in private collections, buried under layers of construction, and eclipsed by more durable media, polychrome tiles have until now been denied their full role in our understanding of Byzantine decoration and aesthetics.
A Lost Art Rediscovered includes a fully illustrated catalogue of all known tiles produced in the region of Constantinople, including the substantial collection owned by the Walters Art Museum, as well as those belonging to museums and private collections around the world. Some tiles included in the catalogue are now lost; the discovery of others is reported here for the first time. A series of scholarly essays gives the ceramics their rightful place in the study of Byzantine art and treats aspects of patronage, manufacture, function, ornament, and cultural significance. This comprehensive publication heralds the first large-scale, permanent installation of the Byzantine tiles in the collection of the Walters Art Museum.
Contributors include Jeffrey C. Anderson, Anne Bouquillon, Anthony Cutler, Elizabeth S. Ettinghausen, Cyril Mango, Marlia Mundell Mango, William Tronzo, and Christine Vogt.
Book description
Edition: Hardcover
