A History of Architecture; Settings and Rituals

Kostof, Spiro and Castillo, Greg (Reviser)

ISBN 10: 0195083784 / ISBN 13: 9780195083781

Editore: Oxford University Press, New York, 1995

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The format is approximately 9.5 inches by 11.25 inches. [8], 792 pages. Illustrations (some in color). Glossary. Index. Ink dot on the bottom edge. This is a heavy, oversized book that if sent outside of the United States will require additional shipping charges. Spiro Konstantine Kostof (7 May 1936, Istanbul 7 December 1991, Berkeley) was a Turkish-born American leading architectural historian, and educator. He was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His books continue to be widely read and some are routinely used in collegiate courses on architectural history. Kostof's approach emphasized urbanism as well as architecture and showed how architectural works are embedded in their physical and social contexts. Commonly accepted today, Kostof's approach was a break with previous directions which tended to emphasize the sequence of styles and to study architectural works in relative isolation from their settings. When the late Spiro Kostof's A History of Architecture appeared in 1985, it was universally hailed as a masterpiece--one of the finest books on architecture ever written. The New York Times Book Review, in a front cover review, called it "a magnificent guided tour through mankind's architecture," and The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Kostof.has enthralled a generation of students. Now he has done the same thing for the public at large, in an extraordinary book that is a new kind of architectural history." This magisterial work has now been revised and expanded by Greg Castillo, Kostof's colleague and literary executor. Insightful, engagingly written, and graced with almost a thousand superb illustrations, the Second Edition of this classic volume offers a sweeping narrative that examines architecture as it reflects the social, economic, and technological systems of human history. The scope of the book is astonishing. No mere survey of famous buildings, Kostof's History examines a surprisingly wide variety of manmade structures: prehistoric huts and the TVA, the pyramids at Giza and the Rome railway station, the ziggurat and the department store. Indeed, Kostof considered every building worthy of attention, every structure or shelter a potential source of insight, whether it be the prehistoric hunting camps at Terra Amata, or the caves at Lascaux with their magnificent paintings, or a twenty-story hotel on the Las Vegas strip. The Second Edition features a new concluding chapter, "Designing the Fin de Siècle," based on Kostof's last lecture notes and prepared by Castillo, as well as an all-new 16-page color section. Many of the original line drawings by Richard Tobias, as well as some 50 photographs, have also been updated or replaced, for improved clarity. Visually and intellectually stimulating, this book is at once a compelling history and an indispensable reference on all aspects of our built environment. It achieves for architecture what Janson's history accomplished for visual art. Second Edition, Revised [stated]. Third printing [stated].

Codice articolo 90968

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: A History of Architecture; Settings and Rituals
• Editore: Oxford University Press, New York
• Data di pubblicazione: 1995
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0195083784
• ISBN 13: 9780195083781
• Rilegatura: Hardcover
• Disegnatore: Richard Tobias (Original drawings)
• Condizione: Very good
• Condizione della sovraccoperta: Very good

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

BL New final chapter BL Two revised chapters This second edition of the late Spiro Kostof's major work on the history of the built environment (first published in 1985) has been updated with a concluding chapter, `Designing the Fin-de-Siècle'. Based on Professor Kostof's last lecture notes, the chapter was prepared by Greg Castillo, his research assistant and literary executor. Castillo also revised the two preceding chapters, `Architecture and the State: The Interwar Years' and `At Peace with the Past: The Last Decades' to keep them consistent within the time frame. Throughout the book, many of the fine original line drawings by Richard Tobias have been replaced or updated by him, as have some 50 photographs, for improved clarity.

Informazioni sull?autore

Spiro Kostof was Professor of Architectural History at the University of California at Berkeley, and was a former president of the Society of Architectural Historians. Greg Castillo was Kostof's research assistant and literary executor.