Book Description

This beautifully illustrated book takes a look at many unusual private homes designed by Wright, from the cantilevered "Fallingwater" in Pennsylvania to the "Desert-rose" concrete-block Lykes House in Phoenix, Arizona.Includes many popular examples of Wright's most famous houses. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Pentagram is an international design consultancy founded in 1972 with offices in New York, London, San Francisco, and Austin, Texas.Pentagram Book Five is the company's fifth monograph, highlighting 50 case studies of its projects from the last five years -- 1993 through 1998 -- across the fields of graphic design, industrial design, and architecture.Pentagram Book Five is both a celebration of the creativity and a testimony to the collaboration of Pentagram's partners, each of whom brings an individual voice to the firm's idea-based design.From the start, Pentagram's partners balked at the common practice of designing in the vacuum of specialization, choosing instead to bring together a broad range of designers, disciplines and backgrounds to collaborate on projects.The combined efforts of these architects, product designers, and graphic designers have landed them coveted work with such diverse clients as the American Institute of Architects, Coca-Cola, Swatch, and Toshiba, who chose Pentagram for the unique perspective this collaboration brings.Edited and introduced by communications journalist Randall Rothenberg, Pentagram Book Five is also a how-to, giving insights to the way Pentagram's partners approach the problems given them by their clients: How to bring new audiences to a struggling theater?How to make computers a natural part of the kitchen?How to sell the Bible to readers of contemporary fiction?How to create a feeling of "heritage" in a manufactured town?Each case study takes the reader through the designers' and clients' thought processes and shows why the project is successful, in terms of both business and design requirements.Pentagram partners represented in the book include: Lorenzo Apicella, James Biber, Michael Bierut, Robert Brunner, Michael Gericke, Kenneth Grange, David Hillman, Kit Hinrichs, Angus Hyland, John McConnell, Justus Oehler, Woody Pirtle, John Rushworth, Paula Scher, Daniel Weil, and Lowell Williams. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great Design Firm, but an Average Book
Pentagram is one of the best design firms on planet earth, so this book is a must have for a creative professional. BUT the book lacks real inspiration - it's very dry stuff. While the volume has many pretty pictures with "case studies" the book doesn't really tell you a story. The work itself is very good, but you can see that in an awards annual like Graphis. You just get the feeling that they didn't have any fun putting this book together. I judge my design books on how often I run to them for inspiration - and this volume doesn't rate too high. I have an ancient book by the founders of Pentagram (Fletcher, Forbes & Gill) which blows these kids out of the water. So this book is a must have for the reference library, but you may want to wait until it's on sale.

Good design at its best
Pentagram...what more do you need to know? It gives amazing insight into the thoughts behind their work in 50 examples. The forward contains a short but very complete description of the history of this powerhouse company of design. A must have book for anyone who studies or loves "good design" of any kind. ... Read more

Book Description

The name Luis Barragan evokes images of Latin American modernism--brightly colored plain surfaces set off against lush foliage. His 1,250-acre Gardens of El Pedregal, begun in 1945 on the lava fields of south of Mexico City, were dotted with houses and plazas, fountains and ponds, cacti and pepper trees. Barragan considered El Pedregal his most important project, and critics have described the houses and gardens there as a turning point in Mexican architecture.

This book examines El Pedregal's program and form, its representation in architect-commissioned photographs and advertising, and its place within contemporary discourses on cultural identity, design and place, and suburbanization.

Like our highly acclaimed Revolution of Form, Luis Barragan's Gardens of El Pedregal offers an in-depth analysis of this now much altered project through original documents, drawings, color and black-and-white photography, and critical examinations of the design process.

From the dust jacket:

"A first, much-needed, in-depth study of the most enticing and complex project of Luis Barragan.Realized on the unforgiving lava beds on the southern limits of Mexico City, El Pedregal offered a model for mid-century urbanism.With great acumen, Keith Eggener unravels the multiple components of a work in which Barragan merged the historical and the contemporary, the foreign and the native, the mystical and mercantile.This volume offers a seminal study of a seminal architectural experience."--Alessandra Ponte, Princeton University

"Keith Eggener convincingly demonstrates, in this most thoroughly researched treatment of the great Mexican master, that the ephemeral traces of Mexico's first automobile subdivision provide the pass key for unlocking the master's secrets.The revelation of the architect's unusual design methods, his relationship with business, national identity, surrealism, photography, fashion, and modernity, is grounded in brilliant detective work." --Richard Ingersoll, Syracuse University ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Luis Barragan's Gardens of El Pedregal
This is a remarkable book, engaging and forceful, scrupulously researched and boldly imaginative.Keith Eggener's reading of Barragan's Gardens probes the crucial area of cultural studies with energy and precision, offering a sizable number of fresh ideas and unsuspected connections. A rare achievement; Eggener's study is not only an impressive and welcome contribution to the field of Modern architecture, but also a great pleasure to read. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

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 photographs serve as historical comparisons and illuminate the author's ideas on creating and experiencing architecture. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture was the winner of the Classic Book Award at the AIA's Seventh Annual International Architecture Book Awards.

Foreword by Arthur Drexler.
Introduction by Vincent Scully. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Gateway towards looking at architecture
I had to read this book for a class specifically regarding Robert Venturi and the postmodernism movement that he became a leading proponent of. However, this book is NOT a manifesto for a postmodern vacabulary- rather, this book looks at all architecture from the Parthenon to the common family home. Let me say that I have read many architectural theory books, but nothing that really inspired me to look at a building and really see what the architect intended like Complexity and Contradiction. This book really focused my attention on the possibilities for great architecture on any level- from museum to treehouse. I feel that anyone with an interest in appreciating architecture should certainly read this book. Because of my studies of Robert Venturi and his contemporaries, I have pursued a degree in architecture and certainly plan to incorperate his ideas and philosophies into my work.

the duck and the decorated shed
venturi's book highlights the inherent complexity in today's post-modern society, coupled with the depth of comprehension often mistaken by critics. A must buy for Architecture students! ... Read more

Book Description

It's an unfortunate reality that architects practicing in the great expanse between the East and West coasts all too often find themselves beyond the radar of the profession's so-called "tastemakers." And it's especially a shame in the case of Julie Snow, a Minneapolis-based architect who has, over the past decade, developed one of the most inventive practices anywhere in the United States. Snow's meticulously constructed work has the structural opacity and formal integrity that characterized Mies van der Rohe's architecture, but with a sense of humanity and a sensitivity to the environment that seems borrowed from her Midwestern progenitor, Frank Lloyd Wright. This, the first monograph on Snow's work, provides in depthdocumentation of 14 of her residential, institutional, corporate, and public projects, including the Koehler Residence in New Brunswick, Canada, a series of Minneapolis Light Rail Stations, the Minnesota Children's Museum, and the University of South Dakota School of Business. Julie Snow, Architect is produced in collaboration with award-winning designer Andrew Blauvelt, and features an introductory essay by Jan Abrams, director of the Minnesota Design Institute. ... Read more

Book Description

The Renaissance architect and builder Andrea Palladio is arguable the most influential architect in Western history, and certainly the most beloved. His sixteenth-century villas in the Italian Veneto revolutionized the course of architecture, and the principles on which he based his work are still felt today. For the past several years, Italian watercolorist Giovanni Giaconi has devoted his talents to creating exquisite large-format pen-and-ink watercolor renderings of all thirty-two of Palladio’s villas. Each drawing captures the timeless beauty of Palladian architecture and provides a detailed record of these masterpieces. Together with brief descriptions of each villa, samples of Giaconi’s preparatory sketches, and where available, Palladio’s own woodcuts, these works of art leave a deep impression of Palladio’s oeuvre and give the reader an opportunity to compare the original designs with the actual buildings and their present state of conservation. This beautiful book is a must-have and the perfect gift for architects, travelers, and lovers of Italy and Palladio’s architecture. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

Amazing and Inspiring
Predock is really a brialliant architect. The book also inspiring most in my design process. For student, you must have it, for your emergency.

5 Stars for Predock
In this book one will find dramatic buildings and spaces of amazing beauty and grace, especially nice are the many color photographs of the Spencer Theater for the Preforming Arts, and many other important projects as well. Accompanying the photos are wonderfully written, almost poetic texts describing the architect's philosophy and process. This book will not be put away and forgotten but read and viewed over and over. Predock's forms are elegantly simple, but rich in texture, color, material, detail and meaning. ... Read more

Book Description

Part manual, part manifesto, part monograph: a comprehensive look at the methods and techniques of Spuybroek's hugely inventive architecture.

In the avant-garde of digital architects, Rotterdam-based Lars Spuybroek and his studio NOX are among the few who have completed built projects. Before the advent of large-scale processing power, digital modeling, and computer-aided manufacturing, NOX's structures would have been unbuildable. Today, the work is taken seriously on an international scale as the possibilities for construction and spatial innovation attain new levels of feasibility.

Written and compiled largely by the architect, the book reveals the inspirations, insights, and techniques that allow him to conceive—and build—such experimental work. There is a complete documentation of NOX's oeuvre, including built and unbuilt work—some twenty-three projects in total; essays by leading critics Manual De Landa, Detlef Mertins, Andrew Benjamin, Brian Massumi, and Arjen Mulder; and explanatory texts by Spuybroek that link the projects together.

Many of the illustrations in the book have been specially created, making accessible for the first time the complex strategies employed by Spuybroek. This in turn will make the publication an invaluable resource for both students and practicing designers. Over 800 illustrations, 400 in color. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

50 Favorite Rooms Review
This book is great either if you are wanting infornmation on Frank Lloyd Wright, his personal life or the works of art he created. It gives examples of his personal choices and styles. Each page includes a full page color picture of one of the rooms he designed.
It also is a good book if you are just looking for examples of interior design or aritechture. It has unique pieces and will give you great ideas!

Excellently arranged; quality overview of great room spaces
The first thing that struck me about this book is how well put-together it is. In "50 Favorite Rooms by Frank Lloyd Wright," Diane Maddex (listed in the credits as "Project Director") has crafted a book that is clean, simple and elegant in its presentation of the architect's trademark design of personal living spaces.

If you've visited more than a few of Frank Lloyd Wright's creations, chances are they won't all be represented here. He completed hundreds of homes and buildings, which means that this book could have been entitled "250 Favorite Rooms ..." and it still would have been too thin. What you do find are superb photos which are amazingly successful in capturing the perspective and harmony of lines, space, furniture, ornamentation and even lighting. My favorite views are inside the homes, but the public spaces are interesting also. You don't have to be an architect to appreciate the mastery in Mr. Wright's designs.

The chapters are grouped by room type (e.g., living rooms, dining rooms), with each of the pictures taking up AT LEAST one full page, and supported by 20-30 lines of text describing key design aspects of the room. The photos are of the highest quality in terms of exposure, lighting and balance. In some cases, the vantage point allows for a look beyond the windows to the surrounding landscape or greenery. A nice touch, indeed. In short, if you're looking for the definitive image of a room, you'll find a bunch of them right here.

If Mr. Wright had designed a book, I think this is what he'd have come up with. I give this my highest recommendation.

Seeing the Sublime from Behind Closed Doors
Most of the 5,000 plus wonderful rooms designed by Frank Lloyd Wright are not open to the public. This book gives you a chance to go where you often cannot go in any other way to see 50 of the best.

Unlike most architects, Mr. Wright designed in such a way that "the rooms inside would dictate the architecture outside." Even inside, he designed all elements of the room, including floor and wall coverings, art glass in many cases, lighting fixtures, furniture, and where everything should be located. He also specified that those who used the rooms should be limited to bringing in only certain types of objects, and for certain locations. For example, ornamental china was allowed on one ledge of the dining room in Robie House.

I have had the chance to visit many Wright homes and buildings, yet this book greatly expanded my understanding of his work.

Mr. Wright was primarily a home architect, and "the living room was the heart of the home" for him. He would use built-in benches to encourage reading, fireplaces for conversation, windows with designs to inspire contemplation, tables for informal dining and card playing, and views of nature for living more organically.

Clearly, it would be hard to outdo a Wright living room, and most of the best examples of his work in this book are living rooms. I thought the best ones were in the home and studio in Oak Park, Dana-Thomas House, Robie House, May House, Little House, Fallingwater, Taliesin West, Wingspread, Cedar Rock, R.L. Wright House, and Rayward House.

I liked his dining rooms best in the home and studio in Oak Park, Dana-Thomas House, Robie House, May House, and Boynton House.

For nooks and crannies, I liked the Oak Park studio library, and the Storer House Terrace.

Of the public spaces, my favorites were the Unity Temple Sanctuary, Coonley Playhouse, the Guggenheim Museum atrium, and the Marin County Center skylit atrium under the barrel vault.

If you ever have a chance to see any of these, be sure you take advantage of it! Robie House is now being rebuilt in Hyde Park, Illinois, but is open for tours. Final restoration is expected to be done in 2007. The Oak Park home and studio are open every day. Taliesin West is open most days. Fallingwater has an extensive schedule of being open. Unity Temple, the Guggenheim, and Marin County Center are usually open.

After you examine these wonderful living spaces, think about how your life would be improved in such more natural surroundings. How can you make where you live closer to his ideal?

Look for the most natural way to be with others!

The Essence of Eternal Art and Architectural Mastery!
This book touches me in many ways. First, it brings memories of childhood, with the illusions of art full in my mind. I have always loved art and buildings and when in Sr. High School, I had the opportunity to visit one of Mr. Wright's creations, I was in awe at the sight of it. It was in Falling Water, PA. When you have the opportunity to walk into one of these homes, not houses; it is like you feel the presence of the man who designed it, not just a building. Looking at the pages in this book is as close to walking in one of the luxurious rooms as a person can get without actually physically being there. Frank Lloyd Wright truly is an Eternal Artist. His book is lively and full of feeling, as well as detailed artwork that comes from the love of designing itself. I could go on for a long time about his works, but I will leave a little to the imagination now. If you haven't already seen or looked at one of his creations, I suggest that you at least buy one of the many wonderful books about them. You will be delightfully pleased for years to come.

A beautiful record of classic Frank Lloyd Wright interiors.
Having recently visited several Wright designed homes in Illinois and Southern California, I was very impressed with the exquisite photographs contained in Diane Maddex's book. The brief commentaries identifying the owners of the homes who engaged Wright, as well as the descriptions of Wright's basic concepts in fulfilling his designs, added additional interest. ... Read more

Book Description

With her most recent commission, Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center, architect Zaha Hadid becomes the first woman ever to design an American museum.This long awaited frist monograph on one of the world's most important architects collects Hadid's entire oeuvre-more than 80 built and unbuilt projects over 20 years- in one significant volume.Throughout her training at London's Architectural Association, and her work with Rem Koolhaas at OMA, to the establisment of her own worldwide architectural practice, Zaha Hadid has been acclaimed for her vanguard architectonic language.Only a handful of her projects have been built-all to great critcal success- and each new project astonishes the world of design with its commitment to revolutionary forms and ideas.As a result, she has an enormous following of students and practitioners, visionaries and builders.The groundbreaking monograph contains Hadid's own striking drawings and paintings, as well as hundreds of sketches, plans, and models.Readers will recognize her built work-the Vitra Fire Station near Basel and the IBA Building in Berlin- and will welcome details of her competition entry for Chicago's ITT Building, and her winning design for the Cardiff Opera House.With generous commenary by the architect and her office, this is a landmark publication. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Good Architecture? What am I looking at!
There is no doubt in my mind that Zaha Hadid is a great architect. Some of the spatial ideas presented in this book are quite appealing, but that's only about 10 or 12 of the pages. What is going on in all the other projects? How do I move through these spaces? The paintings and graphics are cool, but where's the building? Where's the structure? I see how the built stuff is standing, but what about the unbuilt? This is more a criticism of the book than Hadid, since I can't really tell what she's doing in the first place. A lot of this presentation reminds me of when I was in school and people would present a lot of flash and zippy graphics of very rich process, but their building would fall apart with the first step inside the front door (if you could find it in the first place.) I originally got this book to study how to make this dynamic type of architecture work in the real world, but it doesn't take me much further than I was already. If you are very interested in this sort of architecture, don't stop with this book. Check out Frank Gehry: Complete works and anything else with CONSTRUCTION drawings in it, along with the process and the prettys. What makes good designers great is how they make the idea real and workable. I wish I could have seen more of Hadid's solutions better in this book.

If you want to just deal with graphics and ideas, Hollywood might have a place for you.

Tired and Dated Theories
Some 20 years after she won the Hong Kong Peak Competition, Hadid is still churning out the seductive but unresolved jaggedness that characterizes her work. Unlike more mature artists who's work ripens after they have executed and learned from a few built commissions, Hadid remains stuck in the same, now jaded and predictable rut. Not least, she has never developed as a skilled practitioner. Sticking with the diagrammatic approach to design, Hadid's buildings have the look of cheap, temporary structures, lacking depth or quality of detailing. They lack the sophistication of more capable architects (Foster or Rogers, for example), who understand and appreciate assembly and materials. Hadid's "work" is more about computer graphics than any important architectural concerns. It has the flash sensibility of a catchy pop-tune - the sort of music that gets irritating very quickly because it lacks substance. And lacking substance, it's principal appeal is to the unsophisticated viewer.

Disappointing
It must be said that Hadid's office staff are capable graphic artists, but it would be very wrong to make the assumption that these slick images lead to architecture. As her Cinicinatti art center shows, Hadid's built work is typically very unsatisfying. She has not grasped scale or contextual issues at all, largely due to her working in an abstract, purely graphic mode. The Vitra Building likewise is no longer used because it fails so badly as a building. If you are interested in real architectural issues, this book is not the place to start.

All Flash, No Substance
Hadid was one of those breakthrough architects who achieved early recognition merely for being different. (It is very easy to be different; it is difficult to be good.) Her work has always been insubstantial, little more than crudely assembled buildings that look more like full-size mock-ups than real architecture. Clouding herself in a quasi-intellectual mystique, she has found favor among impressionable youth, but garners little integrity or respect from serious professionals. If you like flash, go ahead, spend your money. But look elsewhere for decent architectural study. Hadid is more about gimmick than anything else

Exceptional!
This is a fantastic compilation of Hadid's work. It's more comprehensive than the El Croquis, although there is no long interview. There is adequate text for each project, however.

If you like her work, or are interested in contemporary architecture, I highly recommend it. It's fairly inexpensive and catalogues her exceptional work. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Newly translated into English, this unique illustrated biography of Antonio Gaud (1852-1926) is based upon the writings by architect Joan Bergs, highly regarded as Gaudm's closest confidant and leading disciple.

Since the late 1800s, Spanish architect Antonio Gaud's fanciful buildings have defined Barcelona's cityscape, creating startling architectural forms that paralleled the development of Art Nouveau. His playful spires and towers, undulating tiled roofs,mand writhing chimneys loom like fantastic creatures atop commercial and apartment buildings alike, and his sculptures are an integral part of many of the city's parks and public spaces. Published in Catalan in 1954 and now newly translated into English, Gaud: The Man and His Work is the first intimate biography of Antonio Gaud's life and work based on the endeavors of the architect Joan Bergs. The illuminating text of Gaud: The Man and His Work is the result of their ten-year relationship and of Bergs's own profound understanding of Gaud's work. From firsthand experience, we learn about Gaud's thought processes, his explorations of art and technique, and his personal remembrances and are given a unique view - in words and pictures - of one of the master architects of this century. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great information
I just got back from a wonderful vacation to Barcelona, Spain. It was during my research for the trip that I came upon Gaudi and the architectural influence that he had on the city of Barcelona. I actually purchased the book before I went on vacation but I wanted to read it afterwards. From the intimate details that discuss the life of Gaudi and all the information I received on my trip from guided tours of the Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera (Casa Mila), and Guell Park, I have an amazing appreciation for Gaudi.

Also, the pictures in this book are excellent and are much more detailed than the ones that I was able to take. They make a great addition to my visual explanations of my trip.

I would recommend this book if either you are going to Barcelona, or have been there. But I would also think that it would be good for someone who is just interested in architecture or the history of someone who changed the face of Barcelona permanently.

My grand grand father's legacy.
Dear customer, My grand grand father firstly met Gaudi at the architecture faculty of Barcelona and from then on they maintained a friendship that lasted for years. From the knowledge of Gaudi's personality and works, Joan Bergos wrote this book on the 50's, about 30 years after the death of Gaudi. Since then on, his book has been published in several languages such as English, Italian, French, German, Catalonian and Spanish. The English version of this edition has a prologue of his grand son Jordi Ribera Bergos.

You can really appreciate Gaudi
Although this is translated from its original version this is still a masterpiece of a biography. You receive a beatiful pictoral view of Gaudi's work that can only be upstaged by a visit to Barcelona. Joan Bergos gives a much appreciated glance a the life of this intriguing and innovative architect. ... Read more

Book Description

Le Corbusier Venice Hospital

Edited by Hashim Sarkis

This volume explores an unbuilt yet iconic project by Le Corbuiser and its visual representation. The Venice Hospital is the uncontested epitome of the “mat, ”or carpet, building type —a low sprawling structure developed in the late fifties and sixties that is making a strong comeback in contemporary architecture. ... Read more

Book Description

Der brasilianische Architekt Oscar Niemeyer (*1907) gehört zu den Klassikern des 20. Jahrhunderts. Durch seine Bauten für Brasilia wurde er weltberühmt. In seinen Gebäuden vereinigt er den Respekt für die jeweilige Örtlichkeit mit einem unverwechselbaren, fast barocken Gestaltungsdrang. In dieser Publikation werden - neben dem Text "Meine Architektur" von Niemeyer selbst - in Einzelbeiträgen von renommierten Autoren wichtige und aktuelle Aspekte des Werks von Niemeyer analysiert. Themen sind zum Beispiel die Einordnung seines Schaffens in die moderne Architekturgeschichte Brasiliens, sein Beitrag als Stadtplaner, die Landschaftlichkeit in seinem OEuvre und sein Einfluss auf die Architektur der jüngsten Zeit in Deutschland. Den visuellen Glanzpunkt bilden die 48 Seiten mit Farbabbildungen, darunter 30 Fotos aus dem Niemeyer-Archiv, welche die Highlights seiner Architektur eindrücklich zur Darstellung bringen. ... Read more

Book Description

This major study of one of the 20th century's greatest architects reevaluates the entire body of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's work in America. Based on considerable new research and bringing to light previously unstudied material-drawings and collages, photographs, project documents, and oral histories-Mies in America presents fresh, original, and corrective interpretations of the architect's achievements. The book includes nine essays that together offer a portrait of Mies's evolution as an artist. Packed with more than 550 illustrations, the book looks beyond Mies's most famous architectural triumphs, from the IIT campus in Chicago to the Seagram Building in New York, to probe the relationship between a seminal body of work and its cultural context. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

mvdr / grs
The book by Phyllis Lambert "Mies in America" is the most intelligent and correct interpretation of the work of this master architect that has yet appeared in book form.
It is deep in detail of all his major works in this country.
It is a necessary read for all architects and historians of contemporary architecture who seek knowledge of this major twenith century artist .
The research done for this writing puts the work considerably ahead of any other Mies publication.

A welcome focus on Van Der Rohe in America
It is a rare occasion to find such an exhaustive study done on an artists work anywhere. Although the work of Van Der Rohe will always be seen as a vital contribution to the history of architecture, the depth and focus of the essays in this catalog will certainly bring appreciation beyond a simple fetishization of Van Der Rohe's Barcelona Pavillion. The inclusion of models, sketches, historical photographs, and works of art from his time offer a multi-faceted explanation of his works and their importance. It is a book that is not only scholarly in nature but also has a beauty that will engross the reader whether they take the time to read the essays or not. The book gets better the more you look at it and the final essay by Koolhaas offers a refreshing and pointed critique of the role of the conservator of Mies' work and how alive his work is. In this age where high modernism has been reduced to style without context and weight this book takes one of its best practitioners, shakes the dust the things that Van Der Rohe created, and offers us a stellar view of a brilliant contribution to American life. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Wright's Space Rightly Revealed
Hildebrand really puts you into a selection of Wright's built spaces; you can imagine what it is like to move through and experience the changing spaces (height, length, turns) in several of Wright's famous houses, even if you've not visited in person. Hildebrand's extended discussion --and demonstration through stunning "3D" exploded diagrams-- of the primordial concepts of Refuge/shelter (those dark fireplace cores and inglenooks) and Prospect/outlook (distant elevated windows) applied to buildings dating to different stages of Wright's practice is most original and convincing. Author's scholarly prose is serviceable rather than equally soaring. Highly useful small plans (newly corrected and with compass indications!) and evocative B/W photographs supplement those amazing diagrams by Wm. Hook.

A new insight into architectural aesthetics
Wright's buildings are some of the most appealing in history. Why?

Hildebrand applies a landscape theory developed by Jay Appleton (books also available on Amazon.com) - our early ancestors sought homesites high in the qualities of PROSPECT (ability to survey the surroundings) and REFUGE (protection from environmental and other threats), and thus we are programmed to find these qualities appealing.

Wright's large windows, sheltering eaves, solid stone, welcoming hearth, etc., are rich in Prospect and Refuge which give the subconscious signal "This is a great homesite!"

(Also see A PATTERN LANGUAGE, by Alexander, for more patterns underlying architectural appeal). ... Read more