Building - Hardcover

Wilkinson, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0751360341 ISBN 13: 9780751360349

Publisher: Dorling Kindersley, 1995

Synopsis

This is a title in the "Eyewitness Guides" series, which combine 3-D photographs with clearly written text. This book aims to inspire readers to take a closer look at the places we live and work in, and discover why and how they are built and decorated as they are. From brushwood shelters to today's concrete jungle, tiled floors to the dome of St Pauls' Cathedral, it provides a display of the variety and beauty of buildings.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

ting tour of world architecture and discover how all kinds of structures are built--from the humblest African mud huts to the slender minarets of Turkish mosques to the earthquake-resistant skyscrapers of Tokyo.

From Kirkus Reviews

A handsome ``Eyewitness'' book with spreads covering the obvious historical periods and places (ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome to ``The Early 20th Century'' and ``Modern Buildings'') plus ``Islamic Buildings,'' ``South and East Asia,'' and such additional topics as ``Walls,'' ``Domes,'' and ``Doors.'' A typical spread includes crisply detailed color photos of a major building, a ruin (serving as a cutaway), or a model (Wren's 1674 proposal for St. Paul's); photos and drawings of decorative and structural details; a brief paragraph overview; and dozens of terms for the architectural elements depicted. As a survey of styles and of the wealth of specialized vocabulary used to describe them, this is a rich source. For knowledgeable readers, it provides hundreds of fine visual examples, many traceable through the index: friezes appear in 11 settings. For those less sophisticated, the visual definition will often not be enough- -e.g., there's no way to tell whether ``fixed light'' refers to part of a window frame, the glass, or the fact that it doesn't open; nor do any of the three depictions of the ``mortise'' and ``tenon'' make it clear that one is a cavity into which the other fits. Some basic ideas are also missing: the Romans' use of the arch is described with no mention of its enormous structural significance. An attractive, often fascinating source, but one that demands a conventional dictionary as a supplement. Index. (Nonfiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dorling Kindersley
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0751360341
• ISBN 13: 9780751360349
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 64