Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

Robert Venturi: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

by Robert Venturi

First published in 1966, and since translated into 16 languages, this remarkable book has become an essential document in architectural literature. As Venturi's "gentle manifesto for a nonstraightforward architecture," Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture expresses in the most compelling and original terms the postmodern rebellion against the purism of modernism. Three hundred and fifty architectural... (more)

The Poetics of Space

by Gaston Bachelard, Maria Jolas, M. Jolas

The classic book on how we experience intimate spaces. "A magical book. . . . A prism through which all worlds from literary creation to housework to aesthetics to carpentry take on enhanced—and enchanted-significances. Every reader of it will never see ordinary spaces in ordinary ways. Instead the reader will see with the soul of the eye, the glint of Gaston Bachelard." —from the foreword by John R. Stilgoe ... (more)

The Architecture of Happiness

by Alain De Botton

One of the great but often unmentioned causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kinds of walls, chairs, buildings and streets that surround us. And yet a concern for architecture and design is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent. The Architecture of Happiness starts from the idea that where we are heavily influences who we can be, and it argues that it is... (more)

Poetry, Language, Thought

by Martin Heidegger

Essential reading for students and anyone interested in the great philosophers, this book opened up appreciation of Martin Heidegger beyond the confines of philosophy to the reaches of poetry. In Heidegger's thinking, poetry is not a mere amusement or form of culture but a force that opens up the realm of truth and brings man to the measure of his being and his world.

Vers une architecture

by Le Corbusier

Text: French

Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience

Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience

by Yi-fu Tuan

Geography On the 25th anniversary of its publication, a new edition of this foundational work on human geography. In the twenty years since its original publication, Space and Place has not only established the discipline of human geography, but it has proven influential in such diverse fields as theatre, literature, anthropology, psychology, and theology. Eminent geographer Yi-Fu Tuan considers the ways... (more)

Architecture Theory since 1968

In the discussion of architecture, the prevailing sentiment of the past three decades has been that cultural production can no longer be understood to arise spontaneously, as a matter of social course, but is constructed through ever more self-conscious theoretical procedures. The development of interpretive modes of various stripes--poststructuralist, Marxian, phenomenological, psychoanalytic, as... (more)

Architecture and Computers: Action and Reaction in the Digital Design Revolution

Architecture and Computers: Action and Reaction in the Digital Design Revolution

by James Steele

Computers have revolutionized architecture, raising deep issues that are forcing a shift within the industry. This cutting-edge guide examines the pros, cons, and various aspects of using the computer in architectural design. A fascinating introduction explores the theory behind cyberspace and traces the effects that the worship of technology has had on society. Five other chapters discuss such topics as Frank... (more)

Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture

Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture

Since Greek antiquity, the human body has been regarded as a microcosm of universal harmony. In this book, an international group of architects, architectural historians, and theorists examines the relation of the human body and architecture. The essays view well-known buildings, texts, paintings, ornaments, and landscapes from the perspective of the body's physical, psychological, and spiritual needs and... (more)

Technology Place & Architecture

by Kenneth Frampton

From Contents: Technology, Place and Architecture; History and Memory; The Public Building - Form and Influence. (Description by http-mart)

City Transformed: Urban Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century (Masterpieces of Architecture)

City Transformed: Urban Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Century (Masterpieces of Architecture)

by Kenneth Powell

If the great cities of the world (and a few of the smaller ones) were to come together to conceive a vast international PR campaign that promoted the 21st-century renaissance of the urban center, they could have no more dazzling a view book than this broadly and intelligently conceived compendium of major recent or in-progress projects in 25 different metropolises, from New York, Dallas, and Seattle to... (more)

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Tags: architecture theory