Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture - Hardcover

Forty, Adrian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500341729 ISBN 13: 9780500341728

Publisher: Thames & Hudson, 2000

Synopsis

The words we use when we talk and write about architecture describe more than just bricks and mortar--they indicate the ways we think of and live with buildings. This original and thoughtful study provides the first thorough examination of the relationship between architecture and language as complex social practices. The first section of the book consists of six rigorously argued essays that investigate the language of modernism, language and drawing, "masculine and feminine" architecture, language metaphors, science in architecture, and the social properties of architecture. The second part provides a vocabulary of key words, providing rich analyses of critical terms such as Character, Form, History, and Space. Each investigation locates a word's modern meaning within a framework of historical enquiry and theoretical discussion, setting out clearly the term's invention and treatment by architects, historians, philosophers, critics, and the people who actually use buildings. This wholly original study changes and enriches the way we think and talk about architecture, and will prove indispensable to anyone concerned with architecture and culture in the modern era.

About this title

About the Author

Adrian Forty is a Lecturer in the History of Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College, London.

Reviews

Academic discourse are the words that immediately come to mind when reading this work. Forty (history of architecture, Bartlett Sch. of Architecture, UK) is keenly interested in the relationship between architecture and language as complex social practices. Part 1 consists of six original essays inquiring into "the spoken and written language of modern architecture." These essays consider the language of modernism, language and drawing, masculine and feminine architecture, language metaphors, science in architecture, and the social properties of architecture. Part 2 is a "dictionary" of essays exploring the historical framework and theoretical meaning of 18 words that form the "core vocabulary of modernist architectural criticism." The scholarly text is well documented with footnotes and black-and-white illustrations. Recommended for large academic and specialized library collections.DJay Schafer, Bay Path Coll. Lib., Longmeadow, MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0500341729
• ISBN 13: 9780500341728
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 335