Why We Build - Rilegato

Moore, Rowan

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0330535579 ISBN 13: 9780330535571

Casa editrice: Picador, 2012

Riassunto

Architecture, good and bad, is shaped by emotions. In Why We Build Rowan Moore shows how buildings are driven by human emotions and desires -- such as hope, power, money, sex, and the idea of home -- and how buildings then shape our experiences. He explores the making of buildings from conception to inhabitation, and reveals the paradoxical power of architecture: it looks fixed and solid, but is always changing, in response to the lives around it. Moore takes us on a personal journey, moving freely across the globe and through history, through works of folly, beauty, spectacle, and subtlety. He uncovers the doomed mansion of an Atlanta multimillionaire, the phenomenally successful High Line in New York, and the remarkable Museu de Arte in Sao Paulo. He discusses baroque churches and Egyptian pyramids alongside works of the moment. We meet extraordinary characters: Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, the lecherous Stanford White, and Lina Bo Bardi, the most underrated architect of the twentieth century. Refusing to bow to fashion or reputation, Moore gives a provocative and iconoclastic view of what makes architecture, why it matters, and why we find it fascinating. After reading Why We Build you will never look at a building in the same way again.

Su questo libro

Recensione

‘Lively and engaging . . . Anyone with an interest in architecture will find good things here’ Evening Standard

‘A subtle, often eccentric but always entertaining guide . . . A fascinating work of love, intellectual curiosity and endurance’ --Literary Review

"Thoughtful and elegantly written, Why We Build will appeal to anyone with an interest in architecture, and the egos, power struggles and human relationships behind the creation of our surroundings. It benefits from a clear style and years of architectural criticism, and even familiar stories are highly readable. Like the architecture Moore advocates, the argument is forceful, but not prescriptive, the satisfying result of prolonged and sensitive observation of both buildings and human nature." --Spectator

"What confers character in architecture is more insubstantial still: siting and surroundings; the disposition of symmetry and empty space; the way a building is occupied, and its daily use. More important, yet more imponderable, still, there s the inspiration it expresses, the aspiration it embodies. Such paradoxes are at the heart of Rowan Moore s discussion of architecture and, inevitably things can get quite elusive; Moore s manner doesn t necessarily make it any easier, so slickly does he slip from example to example and from theme to theme. Perplexing even irritating as it is at times, it s well worth persevering with a book with much to say on how the most inert materials can be invested with so much expressive power." --Scotsman

Descrizione del libro

A provocative and brilliant examination of what inspires great architecture and how buildings can change your life.

Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: Picador
• Data di pubblicazione: 2012
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0330535579
• ISBN 13: 9780330535571
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 432
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile