A Dictionary of Architecture - Hardcover

Curl, James Stevens

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192100068 ISBN 13: 9780192100061

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1999

Synopsis

From Aalto to ziggurat, this new work offers an authoritative and accessible guide to architecture and its history. With over 5,000 entries--twice as many as its nearest competitor--it provides extensive coverage of all periods of Western architectural history, from ancient times to the present day, in styles ranging from Assyrian architecture to Flemish Mannerism.
With entries spanning from the commonplace to the less well known, this dictionary aims to cover as wide a range of architectural terms as possible in an accessible style. Curl has included over 250 attractive illustrations, which add vital visual information to entries on topics such as the arch or the cross. There are also longer entries which explain the different schools of architecture--from Bauhaus to the Federal Style--and put them in their historical context. Biographical entries are provided for a great number of architects from the ancients to leading figures of today. From Brunelleschi and Gropius to Le Corbusier and Brunel, each entry outlines the architect's importance and gives examples of their most notable buildings.
Comprehensive and up to date, this book will prove to be an indispensable guide to anyone interested in architecture and its history. It is ideal for students and professional architects, as well as general readers.

About this title

About the Author

James Stevens Curl is Research Professor of Architectural History at the Department of Architecture, De Montfort University, Leicester. He won the Sir Banister Fletcher Award for Best Architectural Book of the Year for his book The Art and Architecture of Freemasonry.

Reviews

The scope of a visual dictionary, seldom indicated by its title, may be its defining characteristic. The compilers and authors of a dictionary of architecture will necessarily ask whether to include a glossary of terms that describe the physical elements of building, as in Cyril M. Harris's Dictionary of Architecture and Construction (McGraw-Hill, 1993); to arrange the entries by broad historical classifications, as in Russell Sturgis's A Dictionary of Architecture and Building (1902); to abbreviate the entries and transpose the illustrations to the end of the volume to create a visual glossary, as in Henry Saylor's very concise Dictionary of Architecture (1952); or to expand the undertaking beyond a single volume, as in the Encyclopedia of Architecture: Design, Engineering & Construction (Wiley, 1990) and the International Dictionary of Architects and Architecture (St. James, 1993). Each of these works demonstrates a particular strength. For example, the International Dictionary's essays are longer and its chronologies of works exhaustive, giving it the greatest depth but the smallest number of entries, while the Dictionary of Architecture and Construction excludes biographical and specific building data. For a single-volume, well-illustrated source, the Oxford Dictionary supersedes its predecessors. It merges entries on individual architects with a carefully illustrated and impressively comprehensive set of building terms. In a helpful but judiciously employed device, asterisks indicate separate entries for terms with an essay; there are also bibliographic references for most of the topics. The dictionary's terse prose is more than balanced by its breadth and excellent illustrations. Recommended for all libraries.APaul Glassman, New York Sch. of Interior Design Lib.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0192100068
• ISBN 13: 9780192100061
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 848