The Secret Lives of Buildings

The Secret Lives of Buildings PDF Author: Edward Hollis
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1429982101
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
A strikingly original, beautifully narrated history of Western architecture and the cultural transformations that it represents Concrete, marble, steel, brick: little else made by human hands seems as stable, as immutable, as a building. Yet the life of any structure is neither fixed nor timeless. Outliving their original contexts and purposes, buildings are forced to adapt to each succeeding age. To survive, they must become shape-shifters. In an inspired refashioning of architectural history, Edward Hollis recounts more than a dozen stories of such metamorphosis, highlighting the way in which even the most familiar structures all change over time into "something rich and strange." The Parthenon, that epitome of a ruined temple, was for centuries a working church and then a mosque; the cathedral of Notre Dame was "restored" to a design that none of its original makers would have recognized. Remains of the Berlin Wall, meanwhile, which was once gleefully smashed and bulldozed, are now treated as precious relics. With The Secret Lives of Buildings, Edward Hollis recounts the most enthralling of these metamorphoses and shows how buildings have come to embody the history of Western culture.

The Secret Lives of Buildings

The Secret Lives of Buildings PDF Author: Edward Hollis
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1429982101
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
A strikingly original, beautifully narrated history of Western architecture and the cultural transformations that it represents Concrete, marble, steel, brick: little else made by human hands seems as stable, as immutable, as a building. Yet the life of any structure is neither fixed nor timeless. Outliving their original contexts and purposes, buildings are forced to adapt to each succeeding age. To survive, they must become shape-shifters. In an inspired refashioning of architectural history, Edward Hollis recounts more than a dozen stories of such metamorphosis, highlighting the way in which even the most familiar structures all change over time into "something rich and strange." The Parthenon, that epitome of a ruined temple, was for centuries a working church and then a mosque; the cathedral of Notre Dame was "restored" to a design that none of its original makers would have recognized. Remains of the Berlin Wall, meanwhile, which was once gleefully smashed and bulldozed, are now treated as precious relics. With The Secret Lives of Buildings, Edward Hollis recounts the most enthralling of these metamorphoses and shows how buildings have come to embody the history of Western culture.

The Secret Life of Buildings

The Secret Life of Buildings PDF Author: Gavin Macrae-Gibson
Publisher: Mit Press
ISBN: 9780262631181
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Not since the 1920s has American architecture undergone such fundamental changes asthose which are revitalizing the profession today. But in this period of great artistic fertilityand unrest, there has yet to emerge a critical theory capable of analyzing the conditions andexamining the attitudes by which our architecture is being redefined.Gavin Macrae-Gibson is thefirst of a generation of architects educated in the 1970s to construct a method of criticismpowerful enough to interpret this new architecture. The theory is built upon a close reading ofseven works, all completed in the 1980s: Frank Gehry's Gehry House in Santa Monica, Peter Eisenman'sHouse El Even Odd, Cesar Pelli's Four Leaf Towers in Houston, Michael Graves' Portland PublicService building, Robert Stern's Bozzi residence in East Hampton, Allan Greenberg's ManchesterSuperior Courthouse in Connecticut, and Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown's Gordon Wu Hall atPrinceton.The author uses urban plans, and architectural drawings and photographs to reveal thelayers of meaning present in each building, including the deepest layer-its secret life. At thislevel the buildings have in common the fact that their meaning is derived from the realities of animperfect present and no longer from the anticipation of a utopian future.Gavin Macrae-Gibson is apracticing architect. He has been Visiting Lecturer in Architectural Theory at Yale University since1982, and has taught and lectured widely throughout the United States and Canada. A GrahamFoundation Book.The Graham Foundation Architecture Series Two decades ago, the Graham Foundation forAdvanced Study in the Fine Arts published Robert Venturi's epoch-making Complexity and Contradictionin Architecture in association with the Museum of Modern Art. Now the foundation is renewing itscommitment to architectural literature by announcing the first two titles of a new series it islaunching with The MIT Press.The aim is to publish books that are of crucial importance to thetheory and practice of architecture, and that will enhance the understanding of architecture as ahumanist discipline. The series will feature original texts by contemporary architects, historians,theorists, and critics.

The Memory Palace

The Memory Palace PDF Author: Edward Hollis
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1619025620
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
A brilliant, ambitious follow–up to The Secret Lives of Buildings, in which Hollis turns his focus from the great architectural constructions of the past to the now–vanished chambers they once contained. The rooms we live in are always more than just four walls. As we decorate these spaces and fill them with objects and friends, they shape our lives and become the backdrop to our sense of self. one day, the structures will be gone, but even then, traces of the stories and the memories they contained will persist. In this dazzling work of imaginative reconstruction, edward Hollis takes us to the sites of great abodes now lost to history and piecing together the fragments that remain, re–creates their vanished chambers. From Rome's palatine to the old palace of Westminster and the petit Trianon at Versailles, from the sets of MGM studios in Hollywood to the pavilions of the Crystal palace and the author's own grandmother's sitting room, The Memory Palace is a glittering treasure trove of luminous forgotten places and the alluring people who lived in them.

The Secret Lives of Colour

The Secret Lives of Colour PDF Author: Kassia St Clair
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN: 1473630827
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A mind-expanding tour of the world without leaving your paintbox. Every colour has a story, and here are some of the most alluring, alarming, and thought-provoking. Very hard painting the hallway magnolia after this inspiring primer.' Simon Garfield The Secret Lives of Colour tells the unusual stories of the 75 most fascinating shades, dyes and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso's blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book Kassia St Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colours and where they come from (whether Van Gogh's chrome yellow sunflowers or punk's fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilisation. Across fashion and politics, art and war, The Secret Lives of Colour tell the vivid story of our culture.

Healthy Buildings

Healthy Buildings PDF Author: JOSEPH G. ALLEN
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674278364
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Buildings can make us sick or keep us well. Diseases and toxins course through indoor spaces, making us ill. Meanwhile, better air quality and light levels improve productivity. At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has us focused more than ever on indoor air quality, Healthy Buildings shows how much we have to gain from human-centered design.

Bricks & Mortals

Bricks & Mortals PDF Author: Tom Wilkinson
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408843684
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
We don't just look at buildings: their facades, beautiful or ugly, conceal the spaces we inhabit. We are born, work, love and die in architecture. We buy and sell it, rent it and squat in it, create and destroy it. These aspects of buildings – economic, erotic, political and psychological – are crucial if we are to understand architecture properly. And because architecture moulds us just as much as we mould it, understanding architecture helps us to understand our lives and our world. Through ten great buildings across the world Tom Wilkinson reveals the powerful and intimate relationship between society and architecture and asks: can architecture change our lives for the better? THE TEN BUILDINGS: The Tower of Babel, Babylon (c. 650 BC), The Golden House, Rome (AD 64-68), Djinguereber Mosque, Timbuktu (1327), Palazzo Rucellai, Florence (1450), The Garden of Perfect Brightness, Beijing (1709-1860), Festival Theatre, Bayreuth, Germany (1876), Highland Park Car Factory, Detroit (1909-1910), E.1027, Cap Martin (1926-29), Finsbury Health Centre, London (1938), Footbridge, Rio de Janeiro, London (2010)

The Secret Lives of Buildings

The Secret Lives of Buildings PDF Author: Edward Hollis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781846271939
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
A building is a capricious thing: it is inhabited and changed, and its existence is a tale of constant and curious transformation. This title tells the stories of thirteen buildings, beginning with the 'once upon a time' when they first appeared, through the years of appropriation, ruin and renovation, and ending with a temporary 'ever after'.

The Timeless Way of Building

The Timeless Way of Building PDF Author: Christopher Alexander
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195024029
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 588

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Book Description
This introductory volume to Alexander's other works, A Pattern of Language and The Oregon Experiment, explains concepts fundamental to his original approaches to the theory and application of architecture.

The Secret Lives of Saints

The Secret Lives of Saints PDF Author: Daphne Bramham
Publisher: Random House Canada
ISBN: 0307371611
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
The Secret Lives of Saints paints a troubling portrait of an extreme religious sect. These zealous believers impose severe and often violent restrictions on women, deprive children of education and opt instead to school them in the tenets of their faith, defy the law and move freely and secretly over international borders. They punish dissent with violence and even death. No, this sect is not the Taliban, but North America's fundamentalist Mormons. Daphne Bramham explores the history and ideas of this surprisingly resilient and insular society, asking the questions that surround its continued existence and telling the stories of the men and women whose lives are so entwined with it—both the leaders and the victims.

Biophilic Design

Biophilic Design PDF Author: Stephen R. Kellert
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118174240
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 641

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Book Description
"When nature inspires our architecture-not just how it looks but how buildings and communities actually function-we will have made great strides as a society. Biophilic Design provides us with tremendous insight into the 'why,' then builds us a road map for what is sure to be the next great design journey of our times." -Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chairman, U.S. Green Building Council "Having seen firsthand in my company the power of biomimicry to stimulate a wellspring of profitable innovation, I can say unequivocably that biophilic design is the real deal. Kellert, Heerwagen, and Mador have compiled the wisdom of world-renowned experts to produce this exquisite book; it is must reading for scientists, philosophers, engineers, architects and designers, and-most especially-businesspeople. Anyone looking for the key to a new type of prosperity that respects the earth should start here." -Ray C. Anderson, founder and Chair, Interface, Inc. The groundbreaking guide to the emerging practice of biophilic design This book offers a paradigm shift in how we design and build our buildings and our communities, one that recognizes that the positive experience of natural systems and processes in our buildings and constructed landscapes is critical to human health, performance, and well-being. Biophilic design is about humanity's place in nature and the natural world's place in human society, where mutuality, respect, and enriching relationships can and should exist at all levels and should emerge as the norm rather than the exception. Written for architects, landscape architects, planners,developers, environmental designers, as well as building owners, Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science, and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life is a guide to the theory, science, and practice of biophilic design. Twenty-three original and timely essays by world-renowned scientists, designers, and practitioners, including Edward O. Wilson, Howard Frumkin, David Orr, Grant Hildebrand, Stephen Kieran, Tim Beatley, Jonathan Rose, Janine Benyus, Roger Ulrich, Bert Gregory, Robert Berkebile, William Browning, and Vivian Loftness, among others, address: * The basic concepts of biophilia, its expression in the built environment, and how biophilic design connects to human biology, evolution, and development. * The science and benefits of biophilic design on human health, childhood development, healthcare, and more. * The practice of biophilic design-how to implement biophilic design strategies to create buildings that connect people with nature and provide comfortable and productive places for people, in which they can live, work, and study. Biophilic design at any scale-from buildings to cities-begins with a few simple questions: How does the built environment affect the natural environment? How will nature affect human experience and aspiration? Most of all, how can we achieve sustained and reciprocal benefits between the two? This prescient, groundbreaking book provides the answers.