Architecture Art

The theory of architecture implicit in our world today, Christopher Alexander believes, is bankrupt. More and more people are aware that something is deeply wrong. Yet the power of present day ideas is so great that many feel uncomfortable, even afraid, to say openly that they dislike what is happening, because they are afraid to seem foolish, afraid perhaps that they will be laughed at. Now, at last, there is a coherent theory which describes in modern terms an architecture as ancient as human society itself.

For engineers and architects, mistakes are part of the creative process. Learn why the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans, how the reflections from the Walt Disney Concert Hall caused a heat ray, and what engineers and architects did to solve these types of problems.

Lo—TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism by Julia Watson invites listeners on a transformative journey through ancestral innovation and Indigenous ingenuity. Challenging the dominance of high-tech solutions to contemporary environmental crises, Watson reveals how Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) offers sustainable, resilient, and regenerative design strategies rooted in symbiosis with nature.

The Citicorp Center, a fifty-nine-story skyscraper built in 1977, immediately became one of the most recognizable features on the New York City skyline with its distinctive inclined roof and oddly placed support columns. Designed by one of the top structural engineers in the field, William LeMessurier, the tower would become the crown jewel of his professional career; In essence, he created a skyscraper on stilts. The building was a modern marvel—until it was revealed that it had a one in sixteen chance of collapse.

In Montparnasse begins on the eve of the First World War and ends with the 1936 unveiling of Dalí’s Lobster Telephone. As those extraordinary years unfolded, the Surrealists found ever more innovative ways of exploring the interior life, and asking new questions about how to define art. In Montparnasse recounts how this artistic revolution came to be amidst the salons and cafés of that vibrant neighborhood.

The purpose of Why Architecture Matters is to "come to grips with how things feel to us when we stand before them, with how architecture affects us emotionally as well as intellectually" - with its impact on our lives. "Architecture begins to matter," writes Paul Goldberger, "when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads."

Have you ever seen the Eiffel Tower? Gustave Eiffel’s tower is one of the most recognized landmarks in the world, but it wasn’t an easy path to turn his idea into a reality. Listeners will love learning the story behind the name as they follow along with Gustave’s beginnings as a bridge designer and the engineer behind the Statue of Liberty, the criticism and personal attacks by the media he faced while building the tower, and his eventual world-renowned success.

A visionary carpenter shares meditations on work, creativity, and design, revealing powerful lessons on building a meaningful life through his experience constructing some of New York’s most iconic spaces.

Every Monument Will Fall offers an urgent reappraisal of how we think about culture, and how to find hope, remembrance and reconciliation in the fragments of an unfinished violent past. Refusing to choose between pulling down every statue, or living in a past that we can never change, the book makes the case for allowing monuments to fall once in a while, even those that are hard to see as monuments, rebuilding a memory culture that is in step with our times.

Le Corbusier famously said, "A house is a machine for living in." We now confront the litany of environmental challenges associated with the legacy of the architectural machine: a changing climate, massive species die-off, diminished air and water quality, and resource scarcities. Brook Muller offers an alternative: water-centric urban design that fosters sustainability, equity, and architectural creativity.

During the real estate crash of the late 2000s, Christopher Brown purchased an empty lot in an industrial section of Austin, Texas. The property—a brownfield site bisected with an abandoned petroleum pipeline and littered with concrete debris and landfill trash—was an unlikely site for a home. Along with his son, Brown had explored similar empty lots around Austin, so-called “ruined” spaces once used for agriculture and industry awaiting their redevelopment as Austin became a 21st century boom town.

For more than half a century, Ada Louise Huxtable's keen eye and vivid writing have reinforced to readers how important architecture is and why it continues to be both controversial and fascinating - making her one of the best-known critics in the world. On Architecture collects the best of Huxtable's writing from the New York Times, New York Review of Books, Wall Street Journal, and her various books. In these selections, Huxtable examines the 20th century's most important architectural masters and projects.

Voici le tome qui transforme la théorie en ouvrage: un guide vivant et rigoureux de la construction en pierre de taille, des appareils antiques aux principes de stabilité, jusqu’à la taille précise des voussoirs et la pose des voûtes les plus exigeantes. On y traverse Égypte, Grèce, Rome et même Andes pour comparer appareillages, dimensions colossales et liaisons, puis l’auteur formalise les règles: centre de gravité, équilibre, assises, parpaings, crampons, et chaînes de bois selon Vitruve.

Voici le volume où l’Art de bâtir devient une science exacte: un cours limpide de statique appliquée, qui relie calcul, géométrie et expérience pour dimensionner fondations, murs, arcs, dômes et contreforts avec sûreté. Rondelet y clarifie la place de la théorie (de Vitruve aux modernes) et montre comment centres de gravité, leviers, plans inclinés, frottement et poussées conduisent à des choix de formes, d’épaisseurs et d’appareils réellement stables.

Voici le grand manuel qui révèle l’ossature du monde bâti: un guide clair, précis et passionnant qui conduit des origines de l’architecture jusqu’à l’atelier de l’ingénieur, stylo et truelle en main. Écrit par Jean-Baptiste Rondelet, ce premier tome explore la “connaissance des matériaux” et démystifie pierres, chaux, sables, pouzzolanes, plâtres et ciments, en articulant histoire, science et pratique de chantier.

Voici le tome de la mise en œuvre: un parcours complet de la charpente et de la couverture, qui part des origines en bois jusqu’aux combles les plus savants, pour guider du choix des essences au tracé des fermes, des cintres et des toitures selon le climat et l’usage. On y apprend quand couper le bois, comment le sécher, quelles propriétés attendre du chêne, du sapin, du mélèze ou du cèdre, et pourquoi certaines pièces résistent mieux au feu, aux vers ou à l’eau en fondations sur pilotis.

Fiona MacCarthy challenges the image of Gropius as a doctrinaire architectural rationalist, bringing out the visionary philosophy and courage that carried him through a politically hostile age. Pilloried by Tom Wolfe as inventor of the monolithic high-rise, Gropius is better remembered as inventor of a form of art education that influenced schools worldwide. He viewed argument as intrinsic to creativity. Unusually for one in his position, Gropius encouraged women's artistic endeavors and sought equal romantic partners.

Frank Lloyd Wright has long been known as a rank egotist who held in contempt almost everything aside from his own genius. Harder to detect, but no less real, is a Wright who fully understood, and suffered from, the choices he made. This is the Wright whom Paul Hendrickson reveals in this masterful biography: the Wright who was haunted by his father, about whom he told the greatest lie of his life.

We are living through a global catastrophe. Buildings affect how we feel, moment by moment, day by day. They have the power to lift us up and make us feel awestruck, playful, safe, and inspired, just as they can make us feel alienated and sad. But many of the places where we live, work, learn, and heal have become monotonous and disposable. We’re surrounded by cheap, boring buildings that make people stressed, sick, and unhappy. In short, much of our world has been crafted in a way that is hostile to human experience.

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School provides valuable guideposts for navigating the design studio and other classes in the architecture curriculum. Architecture graduates—from young designers to experienced practitioners—will turn to the book as well, for inspiration and a guide back to basics when solving a complex design problem.