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Christopher Alexander, the humble messiah of good architectural design, invites readers to get comfortable with their inner judgments in The Nature of Order: The Phenomenon of Life. Best known as principal author of A Pattern Language, Alexander has designed and built countless projects worldwide, all the while thinking deeply about the nature of his work. Frustrated with the 20th century's reluctance to acknowledge human commonality and reliance on Cartesian mechanism, he urges us to rethink our understanding of space itself. With an architect's precision and clarity, he explains his theory of life as the order inhabiting space--an order both variable in degree and apprehensible to human minds. Though the scientifically minded will resist his seeming subjectivity, it will be hard for any to argue that his many examples of good and bad design are equivalent. Alexander's combination of powerful analysis and compelling synthesis makes The Nature of Order essential 21st-century reading. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
What is happening when a place in the world has life? And what is happening when it does not? In Book 1 of this four-volume work, Alexander describes a scientific view of the world in which all space-matter has perceptible degrees of life, and sets this understanding of living structure as an intellectual basis for a new architecture.
He identifies fifteen geometric properties which tend to accompany the presence of life in nature, and also in the buildings and cities we make. These properties are seen over and over in nature, and in cities and streets of the past, but have all but disappeared in the deadly developments and buildings of the last one hundred years.
The book shows that living structure depends on features which make a close connection with the human self, and that only living structure has the capacity to support human well-being.
The other three volumes of The Nature of Order continue this thesis with three complementary views giving a masterful prescription for the processes which allow us to generate living structure in the world. They show us what such a world must gradually come to look like, and describe the modified cosmology in which "life" as an essential quality, together with our inner connection to the world around us-towns, streets, buildings, and artifacts-are central to a proper understanding of the scientific nature of the universe.
". . . Five hundred years is a long time, and I don't expect many of the people I interview will be known in the year 2500. Christopher Alexander may be an exception."-David Creelman, author, interviewer and editor, HR Magazine, Toronto
Christopher Alexander is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, architect, builder and author of many books and technical papers. He is the winner of the first medal for research ever awarded by the American Institute of Architects, and after 40 years of teaching is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.
Customer Reviews:
Gordon L. Prescott come to life?.......2006-09-25
Read 'The Fifteen Properties' excerpted in the 'First Nomination for Book of the Century' customer review, or any other excerpt, and then consider the words of Gordon L. Prescott from 'The Fountainhead':
"The flowing life which comes from the sense of order in chaos, or, if you prefer, from unity in diversity, as well as vice-versa, which is the realization of the contradiction inherent in architecture, is here absolutely absent. I am really trying to express myself as clearly as I can, but it is impossible to present a dialectic state by covering it up with an old fig leaf of logic just for the sake of the mentally lazy layman."
I wish I could give a 'no star' review, but amazon doesn't have that option.
Some of these reviews are flawed.......2005-12-04
Anne Broadbent's review below is completely unjustified. She writes "At the beginning of the first book, Alexander shows a beautiful pagoda - but I still think I wouldn't want to have one near me, in the guise of a shopping centre, school, house, gym, restaurant, bank or whatever: I'd rather see it in its original cultural setting." Alexander agrees completely with this point. His whole theory involves local adaptation following the fundamental properties and transformations that he has outlined in these books. Nowhere does he suggest that we should use the pagoda's form in any other cultural context. If you look at some of the examples he gives from nature you will understand this. He discusses the way sand dunes form following some of the fundamental properties. Does this mean he claims we should create sand dunes in the jungle? Of course not. Examples of buildings, places, and natural phenomena, are used as a means of displaying these fundamental properties and how these properties occur universally in phenomena which the majority of humans, and all other life forms would agree contain the quality of life. Throughout the series of books, Alexander provides hundreds of examples of human creations and natural creations to support his thesis. This may or may not be news to Miss Broadbent, but this is widely acknowledged as good scientific method.
Dissapointing.......2005-11-17
I very much enjoyed 'Pattern Language' and had great hopes for this series, however, after finishing book one, I am not sure I will invest in further volumes. I give the author credit for the time and effort spent in trying to develop his 'unified field theory' of good design, but unlike some of the common sense examples in Pattern language, this book moves to a level of metaphysical abstraction that seems to stretch the ideas past their breaking point. Not-Separateness? The Void? Though he makes a valiant effort, I just couldn't shake the fact that I was reading an after-the-fact justification of the authors pre-conceived tastes. Which essentially boil down to: old = good, new = bad.
Most off-putting also, were the scrawled, barely legible sketches that were meant to illustrate some of the principles. They are so poorly rendered as to be distracting and not very helpful to boot. I would expect more graphic sense from someone purporting to explain the universal secrets of good design. I really wanted to love this book, but I find it simply frustrating.
The actual physical book is not up to the ideals of the content.......2005-08-02
I haven't finshed reading the content of this book - this is more a comment on the delivery medium...
The 'hardcover' book more closely resembles a cardboard cover book. Mine is easily bent and permanently warped in multiple dimensions - makng it much more like your typical large paperback book than a $75 hardback book. It seems harder and harder for publishers to strike that balance between quantity and quality of pictorial content on the one hand, and quality and flashiness of the cover on the other.
This book changed the way I look at everything..........2005-07-10
As a total amateur, I have no design training. I am fascinated by architecture and design, but really only "know what I like". I read "A Pattern Language" when working on object oriented computer systems and find it fascinating - I still re-read it. So, when I saw this book, I was hoping that it would be interesting.
It is way beyond interesting. It completely changed the way I look at the world. It deserves to be read carefully, slowly, savored. Alexander makes his work accessible to both architects and lay people alike.
Bravo.
Even with two kids in college, I am going to spring for book 2. Higher praise could not be given.
Book Description
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) designed America's most beloved parks and landscapes of the past century--New York's Central Park, Brooklyn's Prospect Park, the U.S. Capitol grounds, the Biltmore Estate, and many others. From the authors and photographer of the definitive book on Olmsted comes this condensed edition presenting the breadth of Olmsted's work in expansive, beautiful color photographs. The engaging text illuminates Olmsted's role as an indefatigable social resource.
Customer Reviews:
Beautifully photographed.......2006-11-10
This book is beautifully photographed and shows a range of Olmsted's work, from Central Park and other parks, to Biltmore and other homes. It even includes photos of Olmsteds own garden. Highly recommended!
FATHER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE.......2006-10-10
Really a nice book on the work of the singular Frederick Law Olmsted. The book has well presented images and the text is highly informative. Olmsted was a pioneer in the field of landscape architecture and people in this profession today own him a huge debt of gratitude, as do we all, because he popularized the idea of the great urban neighborhood of the automobile age with it's windening streets and statigically planted trees and shrubs. Olmsted really understood the concept of vista's and how people interact with nature, all you need to do is walk through his Central Park in New York, or one the neighborhood designs he influenced, like Beverly Hills, River Oaks, Grosse Pointe, or Highland Park, these are some of the most saught after neighborhoods in America. His influence is shown in the park designs of Hermann Park in Houston, Audubon Park and City Park in New Orleans, and Golden Gate Park in San Fransisco, just to name of a few, his importance to the field of landscape architecture cannot be overstated. This book does a fine job of illustrating this and I highly recommend it.
The Man Behind Many of Our Treasured Parks.......2006-05-26
Frederick Law Olmstead (1822 - 1903) ranks among the most important landscape architects of his time, and indeed of history. His most famous accomplishment was his design and execution of the multifaceted magnificence of New York City's Central Park, presented here in this fine book with many of the details that today go unnoticed.
Charles Beveridge has written extensively about Olmstead but here his knowledge of Olmstead's genius is enhanced by numerous drawings and maps of layout as well as the beautiful photography by Paul Rocheleau. The entire volume is edited and designed by David Larkin in a manner that not only brings out the scholarly aspects of this book but lays out the various areas in both Central Park and in some of the other Olmstead works (Brooklyn's Prospect Park, the U.S. Capitol grounds, the Biltmore Estate among others) in a fashion that makes this a true art book.
There may be many reasons to place this book in the library, but one that is certain to appeal to everyone is the importance of the myriad details of the great Central Park presented here with more majesty than in any other volume. Recommended. Grady Harp, May 06
great stuff.......2000-06-10
I have been a great fan of Olmstead's design and outlook. This book provides a wonderful overview of his style, his vision and his ideas about how to create beauty out of the natural enivironment. Architects will benefit from his approach to design and construction and his ideas should be a model for those of us new to the field.
Book Description
John Lautner is recognized as one of the foremost architects who practiced at the height of the modern movement. In The Architecture of John Lautner, stunning photography and insightful text illuminate the work of this modern master. This revised and condensed reprint of the Rizzoli title of the same name outlines all of Lautner's residential projects and details his career from his apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright to his status as one of the preeminent practitioners of mid-century modernism. The book includes extensive photographs of Lautner's spacious residential interiors that have never appeared in other publications.
Lautner's highly personal designs for homes are known for their poignant originality as well as their ties to Frank Lloyd Wright's theories of organic architecture. As a student of Wright's, Lautner continued his tradition but branched out–many of his designs, such as the Chemosphere and the Monsanto House, have become icons of southern Californian architecture in their own right.
Customer Reviews:
The Architecture of John Lautner .......2006-02-28
Lauther has been able to utillize unbuildable sites to create rooms with beautiful views.
design that transcends decades.......2002-03-14
it is amazing to see how the designs of the mid 1900's seem so contemporary even to the present day. this book captures the designs via beautiful photography and commentary.
even the layman will be amazed to find that many of the buildings have been used in the media for many years. whether in movies or magazines they have been associated with the most contemporary designs of our time.
highlights this architects mastery of a typical material palette of concrete, wood, and steel.
Lautner the master of panoramic windows.......2000-06-09
This book is really beautiful, the pictures are of great value. If the architecture can be said as to be a little "out of fashion" (I mean architecture of the fifties), it is anyway wonderful and inspiring to see such beautiful house. there is a lot of wonderful pictures of all the major houses build by lautner during his career. the only things that can be missed in this book is that there is no drawings but anyway, I really believe it's a good book.
A F.L. Wright Disciple Gets His Full Measure of Recognition.......2000-03-24
In the few months since I purchased this beautifully illustrated and impecabbly written monograph, John Lautner seems to have become Hollywood's favorite posthumous architect. This month's Vanity Fair features a screenwriter and his wife showcasing their restored Lautner masterwork while virtually every fashion spread in the same issue has one emaciated model or another posing, pouting and preening against a Lautner structure. This wonderful book travels Lautner's career arc from Wright disciple employing the tools and traits of the Master to the emergence of his own distinctive blend of wood, steel, concrete and location that, ultimately, bears little resemblance to his roots at Taliesin. As the text makes clear, Lautner shared Wright's prickly self-absorption and relentless self-philosophizing. However, as the book wanders from one beautifully executed commission to the next, you end up endorsing his sense of self. Like the best of Wright, each structure seems to organically emerge from its site to envelop the owners in a beautifully scaled and very human dwelling. A worthy tribute to John Lautner's artistry and vision.
Lautner Illuminated.......1999-12-25
This picture book of Lautner's work provides a new perspective to the innovative work of the architect. Although many of the buildings are captured in other publications, the images are different than anything out there. Reproduction quality is excellent, as well as composition.
Only way to improve this one is with a virtual tour. It would also be nice if the industry acknowledged this superior architecture - this is art, not just structure, and its truly American architecture. Current architectural trends are decidedly un-American; from Mediterranean, Spanish revivalism to Victorian - its all big time popular, but pure facade when compared to directly to American, European, and Asian modernism.
...
Average customer rating:
- Too much
- GREAT BOOK
- More books like this on Bucky, please
- Excellent Introduction for a Non-Technical Reader
- Thank you-I finally understand Bucky
|
Buckminster Fuller's Universe: His Life and Work
Lloyd Steven Sieden
Manufacturer: Perseus Books Group
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ASIN: 0738203793 |
Book Description
A fascinating and authoritative look at the enduring legacy of a singular philosopher.
Buckminster Fuller, the brilliant and eccentric futurist philosopher best known as the inventor of the Geodesic Dome, was one of the most creative contributors to innovative thought and technology in the twentieth century. Incomparable designer, engineer, and architect, he proved that a lone genius, through sheer initiative, can have an astounding impact on the world. In this inspiring account of Fuller's life and legacy, Lloyd Steven Sieden brings new light to Fuller's belief system and recognizes his many contributions to humanity.
Customer Reviews:
Too much .......2007-07-17
I hate to be contrarian, but this was one of the worst books I have ever read. The author spends much of the book over-praising the genius of Buckminster Fuller, which should lead suspicious people to question what exactly is going on. It's possible that Mr. Fuller is the greatest genius of our time; but the author should simply show us his accomplishments, rather than say it. This style of over-inflated hype was so grating to me that I began to doubt whether Mr. Fuller had accomplished much of anything, a feeling re-inforced by the ridiculous jargon that he uses to obscure his ideas. I had hoped that this book would give me a glimpse of genius, but it ended up diminishing my view of Buckminster Fuller.
GREAT BOOK .......2007-01-10
This biography of Bucky fuller is a very good read. It is detailed and well written. I ordered the book with no prior knowledge of the author or his writing style, but after the first few pages it became clear that this book is definitely worth the price.
More books like this on Bucky, please.......2006-07-06
On the plus side, this book is written in clear English and gives a good overview of Bucky's inventions and ideas. It helps those of us who didn't live through it, understand what all the fuss about Buckminster Fuller is about. And Bucky's ideas are in fact quite relevant to the present time.
However, on the negative side, there is a bit too much pro-Bucky "cheerleading" in this book for my taste. Although, I have zero desire to hear any "dirty laundry" or negative personal anecdotes about Bucky, I really would have liked to have learned just a bit about what Bucky's intellectual critics thought as well. There are always other resources for that though. This book is unabashedly about Bucky "worship", and considering that Bucky was probably indeed a genius, perhaps it's excusable.
Another complaint I have about this book is that it doesn't give as complete a picture of Bucky's life as it pertains to his intellectual development, as I'd like. For instance it almost seems from this book that Bucky quits his job in his early 30's and becomes a genius based on a bit of naval experience and personal studying and little more. I can't help think that there is much much more to the intellectual development of Buckminster Fuller than we are shown in this book.
Still this is a good introduction to Buckminster Fuller. It doesn't delve deeply into Bucky's views on math, but I suspect that is because even the author of this book doesn't understand them! There are still a few parts of Bucky's philosophy as explained in this book, that I don't understand at all, but I suspect they may be very difficult concepts to explain and grasp, and that I'd probably have to pick up a much more difficult book than this one to understand them, assuming they are indeed understandable.
Excellent Introduction for a Non-Technical Reader.......2005-09-18
I've tried to dive into some of the books actually written by Buckminster Fuller without success. His ideas have always intrigued me, but I found his writing style to be rambling and confusing. This book, however, is an excellent introduction to Fuller's life and ideas, without the confusing detritus. I don't have a strong math or science background, so I appreciated the fact that the author was able to explain Fuller's ideas without resorting to complex equations or formulas. The biographical aspects of this book are also quite interesting. It is chronologically arranged so that the reader can track the evolution of Fuller's thoughts as he progressed through life.
Thank you-I finally understand Bucky.......2005-02-22
All I can say is thank you to Mr. Sieden for finally helping me to understand the great Buckminster Fuller.
I first became interested in Bucky when I was in college and over the years have tried repeatedly to read Bucky's books but was never quite able to finish them. I am not an engineer or even a techie just someone interested in brilliant minds. A brilliant mind Buckminster was but he was not so great at explaining his ideas in a way that most people can understand.
So when a co-worker and I got on the subject of the great inventors of our time we naturally came around to Bucky. I told him about my great interest in Bucky and about the trouble I had finishing any of his books. He told me a Fuller "must read" is Lloyd Sieden's Buckminster Fuller's Universe.
Finally, I understand more of the great man Fuller was, the huge impact he had on humanity and still does years after his death. Thank you Mr. Sieden!
Book Description
Following on from the great success of Great Houses of England and Wales (Rizzoli), this concise edition of the original work brings together a selection of the finest houses into a completely redesigned, handy format that will enable it to be used as an affordable companion for those wishing to visit these magnificent houses.
As with the larger volume, the book is filled with charming anecdotes that describe the history of each house, both its architecture and its families, giving a real sense of the life it embodies. These are matched by stunning photographs that illustrate all aspects of the houses. They include some of the most splendid examples of English art and architecture, from awe-inspiring medieval stone to the beauties of the English Renaissance, the classical grandeur of the eighteenth century and the highest excesses of Victorian taste. The book concludes with a list of contact details and opening times for the houses that will assist those wishing to visit them.
Customer Reviews:
Great Houses - So Grand.......2007-05-09
I enjoyed the overview that this book provides. I am facsinated with the world that existed for the wealthy members of society at the time when these houses were built and then refurbished. It was an easy read - I would be interested in seeing the extended version.
Book Description
Steven Holl is revered among architects and students for his quiet and consistent modernist buildings. His reputation among generations of students was cemented during his early tenure at Columbia University and his founding of Storefront for Art and Architecture. His Pamphlet Architecture series furthered his standing as a leader of the avant-garde. With his embrace of computer technology, Holl smoothly transitioned from the 1980s into the digital design era of the 1990s. At the same time, his practice expanded globally and his housing projects in Japan opened to international acclaim. Recently, the ultramodern design of his Kiasma Museum
of Contemporary Art earned high praise for its revitalizing influence on Helsinki's city center. Remarkably, this monograph is the only book available that documents Holl's full career, covering his early houses of the 1970s to his latest designs for museums currently under construction.
Book Description
Since the opening in 1997 of the Guggenheim Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry, museum architecture has enjoyed worldwide attention on an unprecedented scale. That single watershed project demonstrated to municipalities that architecture has the power to transform the image of an entire city, thus making the turn of the twenty-first century the unofficial age of the museum building.
New Museums examines the boom in high-design museum projects in detail, beginning with the Guggenheim Bilbao’s groundbreaking role in the development of contemporary museum architecture. It continues with a beautifully illustrated tour of 30 examples of the most innovative and exciting museum architecture around the world, including Tadao Ando’s Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth, Zaha Hadid’s Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Renzo Piano’s Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, and many others.
Customer Reviews:
31 museums in only good photos.......2007-02-09
31 museums in this small size survey at only 6.5 x 8.25 inches (16.5 x 21 cm) are depicted only by photos, but good ones. Following the introductory part on 12 pages, each of 31 buildings is headed by a description filling up a title page with text followed by 5 pages with only photos. This is an album-like book without any technical edge. It is similar to the book "New Museums" (ISBN: 0714844985), but only a half of its size and... splendor. Like all from the Universe Architecture series, it is compact and well published.
CONTENTS:
6 Introduction
18 Contemporary Art Museum; St. Louis, Missouri; Allied Works Architecture
24 Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts; St. Louis, Missouri; Tadao Ando
30 Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art; Helsinki, Finland; Steven Holl Architects
36 Contemporary Arts Center (CAC); Cincinnati, Ohio; Zaha Hadid
42 Jewish Museum; Berlin, Germany; Daniel Libeskind
48 American Folk Art Museum; New York, New York; Tod Williams Billie Tsien and Associates
54 Museum of Modern Art, Queens; Long Island City, Queens, New York; Michael Maltzan and Cooper, Robertson & Partners
60 Museum of Modern Art; New York, New York; Yoshio Taniguchi
66 Kunsthaus Graz; Graz, Austria; Spacelab Cook-Fournier
72 Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation; Vienna, Austria; Ortner and Ortner
78 Kunsthaus Bregenz; Bregenz, Austria; Peter Zumthor
84 Tate Modern; London, England; Herzog & de Meuron
90 Dia:Beacon; Beacon, New York; Robert lrwin and OpenOffice Art + Architecture Collaborative
96 0-Museum; Iida, Nagano, Japan; SANAA
102 Kalkriese Archaeological Museum Park; Kalkriese, Germany; Gigon & Guyer
108 Paper Art Museum; Shizuoka, Japan; Shigeru Ban
114 Art Pavilion "De Verbeelding"; Zeewolde, Netherlands; René van Zuuk Architects
120 Makino Museum of Plants and People; Shikoku Island, Japan; Hiroshi Naito
126 Echigo-Matsunoyama Museum of Natural Science; Matsunoyama, Japan; Takaharu + Yui Tezuka Architects
132 De Young Museum; San Francisco, California; Herzog & de Meuron
136 Vulcania: Parc Europeen du Volcanisme; Saint-Ours les Roches, Auvergne, France; Hans Hollein
142 Mesquite Heritage Museum and Art Center; Mesquite, Nevada; AssemblageSTUDlO
148 Luyeyuan Sculpture Museum; Sichuan Province, China; Jiakun Liu
154 Stone Museum; Nasu, Japan; Kengo Kuma & Associates
160 asher Sculpture Center; Dallas, Texas; Renzo Piano Building Workshop
166 Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Fort Worth, Texas; Tadao Ando
174 Nevada Museum of Art; Reno, Nevada; William Bruder
180 Bellevue Arts Museum; Bellevue, Washington; Steven Holl Architects
186 Moderna Museet; Stockholm, Sweden; Rafael Moneo
192 Museu Serralves; Oporto, Portugal; Alvaro Siza
200 Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College; Saratoga Springs, New York; Antoine Predock
206 Notes
207 Photography Credits
208 Resources
Book Description
With nearly 1,000 commissions executed between 1879 and 1912, McKim, Mead & White was the architectural firm of choice for the most prestigious projects of the beaux-arts era. Among its residential clients were many of the most powerful figures of the Gilded Age: the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, the Pulitzers.
In this condensed edition of the acclaimed Rizzoli original of 1998 the reader will find more than thirty houses presented, the exteriors and interiors of which have been elegantly recorded in lush color photographs by Jonathan Wallen.
A practicing architect and greatgrandson of Stanford White, author Samuel G. White was given unprecedented access to the great, private residential architecture of this legendary firm. This book brings a unique perspective to these houses, offering us a privileged and rare look into this extraordinary body of work.
Customer Reviews:
Gilded Age Spendor.......2005-09-04
I must confess I enjoyed this book, it may not be the burning bush, but the text was insightful and I thought the photos where nicely laid out. It is amazing to see the breathe of Mckim, Mead, and Whites work, they really where THE Gilded Age architects. Lord knows there where other great architects of the time, like Horace Trumbaur and Carrere and Hastings to name a few, but no firm had a better P.R. machine than this firm, namely Stanford White, it can be debated whether they where the best of the architects of the time, but nobody can debate their preeminence during the Gilded Age. Nice book, I recomended it.
mindless nepotism.......2004-05-27
This book has some nice photographs but adds nothing to already published scholarship on this topic. The author is not a professional architectural historian; he is a descendant of Stanford White. His text is gushy and uncritical, and makes only scant mention of the social and economic forces that contributed to the rise and decline of these grandiose houses.
A minor correction.......2001-04-06
The point of this review is to correct an error in Steven Goldstein's review of this book. McKim, Mead, & White were not involved in the construction of the Metropolitan Opera, as he states.
This is a wonderful, ravishing book, although I suppose some readers might be disappointed that the author has limited himself to surviving examples of McKim, Mead, & White's work, with current photographs ... all of them gorgeous. Vintage photographs, where available, would have been a nice addition. For example, it would be interesting, if possible, to compare the Pulitzer mansion in New York as originally built with the current photos ... it has been divided into something like 9 condominiums!
Luscious Vision of the Gilded Age.......2001-01-28
Speaking as a practicing architect and longtime admirer of the works of Stanford White, I found this book was nonetheless a revelation. Gorgeously photographed, it shows a broader spectrum of the residential work of this illustrious firm. McKim Mead and White have a well-deserved reputation for grand public buildings (Penn Station, Madison Square Garden to name two that have sadly been demolished) but are less known for these spectacular houses built for the robber barons of the Gilded Age among whom Stanford White circulated. What is suprising is the facility with which they moved from lavish and elegantly detailed city houses to surprisingly unpretentious inviting summer homes on Long Island and elsewhere. If you love Beaux Arts architecture, skip this book at your peril.
Sumptuous photography and insightful text.......1998-12-13
This book combines rich visual appeal with a serious analysis of the residential work of McKim, Mead & White. The introduction is particularly valuable for its succinct survey of the firm's development and its discussion of the collaboration of the partners.
Book Description
Renowned for being a universal designer, Santiago Calatrava has been a singular force in reviving an excitement for construction technology and infrastructure projects. Over the last two decades, Calatrava revolutionized the idea of bridges from utilitarian, mechanical instruments into elegant objects that enhance the sense of place and community of their settings. More than thirty celebrated bridges are featured here in drawings and full-color photography, including never-before-published projects such as the Woodall Rodgers Bridge in Dallas, the Sundial Bridge in Redding, California, as well as bridges in Barcelona, Bilbao, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, Manchester, the Netherlands, Orléans, Paris, Seville, and Valencia.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing, both for Architects and Engineers........2006-07-06
Wonderful bridge designs that entertain both fields of asthethics and engineering. It proves that there still is design in civil architecture.
Book Description
In iThe Artful Universe Expanded/i, John D. Barrow draws out the deep links between our aesthetic inclinations - our art, our music, our appreciation of form, pattern, and landscape - and the mathematical and physical structure of the Universe of which we form a part. Barrow challenges the commonly held view that our sense of beauty is entirely free and unfettered. He argues that as beings that have evolved in this Universe, we are products of its natural laws and its underlying mathematical forms. Our minds show the imprints of this structure, which constrains and moulds our perceptions and our aesthetic preferences. In this rich and wide-ranging exploration, Barrow looks at the evolution of complexity, form in painting, computer art and music, and how landscapes and the wheeling patterns of stars in the night sky have impinged upon the human psyche. Originally published in 1995, this revised and expanded edition includes new essays on topics including the beauty of vases, the fractal nature of Jackson Pollock's art, life on extrasolar planets, multiverses, and the question of whether we might be living in a simulated universe (and if so, how would we know?). This is a deeply inspiring and erudite work from an author described by Sir Martin Rees as 'emerging as the Stephen Jay Gould of the mathematical sciences'.
Books:
- The Physical Universe
- The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery
- The Structure of Magic II: A Book About Communication and Change (Book 2)
- The Transit of Venus
- Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton
- Turn Left at Orion: A Hundred Night Sky Objects to See in a Small Telescope--and How to Find Them
- Type Talk: The 16 Personality Types That Determine How We Live, Love, and Work
- You Don't Have to Take it Anymore: Turn Your Resentful, Angry, or Emotionally Abusive Relationship into a Compassionate, Loving One
- A Briefer History of Time
- A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery
Books Index
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The Process of Creating Life: The Nature of Order, Book 2 An Essay of the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe (The Nature of Order, Book 2)
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A Vision of a Living World: The Nature of Order, Book 3
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The Timeless Way of Building
