Constructing Monuments, Perceiving Monumentality and the Economics of Building

Constructing Monuments, Perceiving Monumentality and the Economics of Building PDF Author: Ann Brysbaert
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789088906978
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
In many societies monuments are associated with dynamic socio-economic and political processes that these societies underwent and/or instrumentalised. Due to the often large human and other resources input involved in their construction and maintenance, such constructions form an useful research target in order to investigate both their associated societies as well as the underlying processes that generated differential construction levels. Monumental constructions may physically remain the same for some time but certainly not forever. The actual meaning, too, that people associate with these may change regularly due to changing contexts in which people perceived, assessed, and interacted with such constructions.These changes of meaning may occur diachronically, geographically but also socially. Realising that such shifts may occur forces us to rethink the meaning and the roles that past technologies may play in constructing, consuming and perceiving something monumental. In fact, it is through investigating the processes, the practices of building and crafting, and selecting the specific locales in which these activities took place, that we can argue convincingly that meaning may already become formulated while the form itself is still being created. As such, meaning-making and -giving may also influence the shaping of the monument in each of its facets: spatially, materially, technologically, socially and diachronically.This volume varies widely in regional and chronological focus and forms a useful manual to studying both the acts of building and the constructions themselves across cultural contexts. A range of theoretical and practical methods are discussed, and papers illustrate that these are applicable to both small or large architectural expressions, making it useful for scholars investigating urban, architectural, landscape and human resources in archaeological and historical contexts. The ultimate goal of this book is to place architectural studies, in which people's interactions with each other and material resources are key, at the crossing of both landscape studies and material culture studies, where it belongs.

Constructing Monuments, Perceiving Monumentality and the Economics of Building

Constructing Monuments, Perceiving Monumentality and the Economics of Building PDF Author: Ann Brysbaert
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789088906978
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Get Book Here

Book Description
In many societies monuments are associated with dynamic socio-economic and political processes that these societies underwent and/or instrumentalised. Due to the often large human and other resources input involved in their construction and maintenance, such constructions form an useful research target in order to investigate both their associated societies as well as the underlying processes that generated differential construction levels. Monumental constructions may physically remain the same for some time but certainly not forever. The actual meaning, too, that people associate with these may change regularly due to changing contexts in which people perceived, assessed, and interacted with such constructions.These changes of meaning may occur diachronically, geographically but also socially. Realising that such shifts may occur forces us to rethink the meaning and the roles that past technologies may play in constructing, consuming and perceiving something monumental. In fact, it is through investigating the processes, the practices of building and crafting, and selecting the specific locales in which these activities took place, that we can argue convincingly that meaning may already become formulated while the form itself is still being created. As such, meaning-making and -giving may also influence the shaping of the monument in each of its facets: spatially, materially, technologically, socially and diachronically.This volume varies widely in regional and chronological focus and forms a useful manual to studying both the acts of building and the constructions themselves across cultural contexts. A range of theoretical and practical methods are discussed, and papers illustrate that these are applicable to both small or large architectural expressions, making it useful for scholars investigating urban, architectural, landscape and human resources in archaeological and historical contexts. The ultimate goal of this book is to place architectural studies, in which people's interactions with each other and material resources are key, at the crossing of both landscape studies and material culture studies, where it belongs.

Monument Builders

Monument Builders PDF Author: Edwin Heathcote
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
This is a study of buildings created to honour the dead. It explores the links between socio-religious and existential perceptions of death and how this has been interpreted in architecture over the 20th century.

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower PDF Author: Benjamin Peyrel
Publisher: La Martiniere/Abrams
ISBN: 9781419744297
Category : Tour Eiffel
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The official book of the 130th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower, one of the most famous monuments in the world At 1,063 feet (324 meters) high, the Tower is a symbol--of Paris and of France, and of modernity. Since its creation in 1889, the Eiffel Tower has been hailed as a feat of architectural and engineering prowess, one that still reflects the best of what France has to offer the world. Known in France as the "Dame de Fer," or "Iron Lady," the Tower is the embodiment of a Parisian woman: seductive and always superbly dressed to impress the 6 million visitors she receives each year. This beautiful two-sided book celebrates the dual identity of the Tower: It opens from one side to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the technical aspects of the monument, and from the other side to show off the star herself, the Tower as an icon of France, an inspiration to artists and designers, a symbol of peace and freedom, and so much more.

Tatlin's Tower

Tatlin's Tower PDF Author: Norbert Lynton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300111309
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
The plans for the gigantic Monument to the Third International were completed in 1920 by Vladimir Tatlin, the Russian painter and visionary designer who was a key figure of Russian constructivism. Planned as the headquarters and monument of the Comintern in Petrograd, it was to be made from industrial materials—iron, glass, and steel—as a towering symbol of modernity. Because of the political turmoil and housing shortages in Russia after the 1917 Revolution, the building was never constructed, but it remains a celebrated icon of revolutionary art. In this insightful book, Norbert Lynton investigates the sources and symbolism of Tatlin’s Tower and considers not only its significance but also the broader role of allegory in abstraction and as an expression of man’s highest aspirations. Then, in light of his new symbolic reading of the Tower, Lynton examines Tatlin’s flying machine, Letatlin, and earlier works in his career and discusses their impact on other Russian painters, sculptors, designers, and architects of his era.

Building Histories

Building Histories PDF Author: Mrinalini Rajagopalan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022633189X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Building Histories offers innovative accounts of five medieval monuments in Delhi—the Red Fort, Rasul Numa Dargah, Jama Masjid, Purana Qila, and the Qutb complex—tracing their modern lives from the nineteenth century into the twentieth. Mrinalini Rajagopalan argues that the modern construction of the history of these monuments entailed the careful selection, manipulation, and regulation of the past by both the colonial and later postcolonial states. Although framed as objective “archival” truths, these histories were meant to erase or marginalize the powerful and persistent affective appropriations of the monuments by groups who often existed outside the center of power. By analyzing these archival and affective histories together, Rajagopalan works to redefine the historic monument—far from a symbol of a specific past, the monument is shown in Building Histories to be a culturally mutable object with multiple stories to tell.

Monuments

Monuments PDF Author: Judith Dupré
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
From the award-winning, bestselling author of Skyscrapers, Churches, and Bridges comes a stunning visual history that serves as a tribute to classic American landmarks.

The Washington Monument

The Washington Monument PDF Author: Craig A. Doherty
Publisher: Blackbirch Press, Incorporated
ISBN: 9781567111101
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
The story of one of the famous landmarks located in Washington, D.C.

Plaster Monuments

Plaster Monuments PDF Author: Mari Lending
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691239622
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
We are taught to believe in originals. In art and architecture in particular, original objects vouch for authenticity, value, and truth, and require our protection and preservation. The nineteenth century, however, saw this issue differently. In a culture of reproduction, plaster casts of building fragments and architectural features were sold throughout Europe and America and proudly displayed in leading museums. The first comprehensive history of these full-scale replicas, Plaster Monuments examines how they were produced, marketed, sold, and displayed, and how their significance can be understood today. Plaster Monuments unsettles conventional thinking about copies and originals. As Mari Lending shows, the casts were used to restore wholeness to buildings that in reality lay in ruin, or to isolate specific features of monuments to illustrate what was typical of a particular building, style, or era. Arranged in galleries and published in exhibition catalogues, these often enormous objects were staged to suggest the sweep of history, synthesizing structures from vastly different regions and time periods into coherent narratives. While architectural plaster casts fell out of fashion after World War I, Lending brings the story into the twentieth century, showing how Paul Rudolph incorporated historical casts into the design for the Yale Art and Architecture building, completed in 1963. Drawing from a broad archive of models, exhibitions, catalogues, and writings from architects, explorers, archaeologists, curators, novelists, and artists, Plaster Monuments tells the fascinating story of a premodernist aesthetic and presents a new way of thinking about history’s artifacts.

Washington's Monument

Washington's Monument PDF Author: John Steele Gordon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1620406500
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
The colorful story behind one of America's greatest monuments and of the ancient obelisks of Egypt, now scattered around the world. Conceived soon after the American Revolution ended, the great monument to George Washington was not finally completed until almost a century later; the great obelisk was finished in 1884, and remains the tallest stone structure in the world at 555 feet. The story behind its construction is a largely untold and intriguing piece of American history, which acclaimed historian John Steele Gordon relates with verve, connecting it to the colorful saga of the ancient obelisks of Egypt. Nobody knows how many obelisks were crafted in ancient Egypt, or even exactly how they were created and erected since they are made out of hard granite and few known tools of the time were strong enough to work granite. Generally placed in pairs at the entrances to temples, they have in modern times been ingeniously transported around the world to Istanbul, Paris, London, New York, and many other locations. Their stories illuminate that of the Washington Monument, once again open to the public following earthquake damage, and offer a new appreciation for perhaps the most iconic memorial in the country.

What Can and Can't be Said

What Can and Can't be Said PDF Author: Dell Upton
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300211759
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
"An original study of monuments to the civil rights movement and African American history that have been erected in the U.S. South over the past three decades, this powerful work explores how commemorative structures have been used to assert the presence of black Americans in contemporary Southern society. The author cogently argues that these public memorials, ranging from the famous to the obscure, have emerged from, and speak directly to, the region's complex racial politics since monument builders have had to contend with widely varied interpretations of the African American past as well as a continuing presence of white supremacist attitudes and monuments."--Book jacket.