A History of Architecture in 100 Buildings - Hardcover

Cruickshank, Dan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007575580 ISBN 13: 9780007575589

Publisher: William Collins, 2015

Synopsis

Featuring over 200 photographs, this stunning book by renowned television historian Dan Cruickshank tells the history of architecture through the stories of 100 iconic buildings

Journeying through time and place, from the ancient Egyptian pyramids to the soaring skyscrapers of Manhattan, renowned architectural historian Dan Cruickshank explores the most impressive and characterful creations in world architecture.

His selection includes many of the world’s best-known buildings that represent key or pioneering moments in architectural history, such as the Pantheon in Rome, Hagia Sophia in Turkey, the Taj Mahal in India and the Forbidden City in China.

But the book also covers less obvious and more surprising structures, the generally unsung heroes of an endlessly fascinating story. Buildings like Oriel Chambers in Liverpool and the Narkomfin Apartment Building in Moscow.

Dan Cruickshank has visited nearly all the buildings in the book, many in locations that are now inaccessible and under serious threat. A History of Architecture in 100 Buildings is an eloquent and often moving testimony to the power of great architecture to shape, and be shaped by, world history.

About this title

About the Author:

Dan Cruickshank is a well known BBC television presenter and author. He is a leading expert on architecture and historic buildings, and a frequent contributor to The Architects' Journal and The Architectural Review. His previous books include the bestselling Around the World in 80 Treasures.

Review:

Cruickshank, an art historian, author, and BBC presenter, has produced a beautifully illustrated history of architecture that's both representative and expansive in scope. Cruickshank takes a historical perspective, beginning with the pyramids, and moves through to the present. His exploration is a "personal and intimate affair," and he examines world architecture under differing rubrics, exploring functions and purposes of the buildings. He makes a distinction between buildings and architecture and looks at what makes a building exceptional. He asks how buildings are expressive, and to what purpose; the significance of the tension between conservative and progressive tendencies; and the role of the sacred and of aesthetics. He also zooms out to consider social spaces and urban environments, and the implications of different architectural schools of thought. Cruickshank considers the historical contexts and individual inspiration that brought each building into being. (Publishers Weekly 2015-12-18)

This engaging volume describes the cities and buildings that art historian and author Cruikshank visited for over 35 years on his own and since 2000 while working on television programs for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) ... This book is solid reading for worldwide travelers and a younger audience. (Peter S. Kaufman Library Journal 2015-12-01)

Cruickshank takes us on a trip through time and space to visit a selection of structures representing key moments in the history of world architecture. The book is organized around seven themes, such as "Buildings of Vision" and "Follies." Each building included is described in an essay accompanied by striking color photographs, a number of them double-page spreads. These essays provide factual information and, more important, the author's personal reaction to each building, since he has actually visited all but three of them. Armchair travelers and architecture buffs will enjoy the company of a knowledgeable and impassioned guide in this concise and colorful work. (Carolyn Mulac Booklist 2016-02-15)

An exceedingly well-written tour of 100 buildings all around the world -- humble and utilitarian, magnificent and sacred -- and what their design says about the culture and history of their era. (Mary Ann Gwinn Seattle Times 2015-12-11)

About this edition

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0007575580
• ISBN 13: 9780007575589
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352