Buildings and Power: Freedom and Control in the Origin of Modern

Thomas A. Markus

ISBN 10: 041507665X / ISBN 13: 9780415076654

Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd, 1993

About this Item

Thomas A. Markus, Taylor & Francis Ltd. Buildings and Power shifts the focus of architectural debate from the dominant themes of art and technology to an analysis of meaning in terms of social relations. Buildings are primarily social objects - their forms provide answers to questions we ask about ourselves, questions of power, order, classification and function. Everything about a building has social meaning - its form, function and spatial structure are each capable of analysis. Buildings and Power focuses on the emergence of new building types during the critical period between the Enlightenment and the French and Industrial Revolutions. The types are divided between those whioch control relations between people directly - schools, institutions of various kinds, buildings for cleaning and hygiene, clubs, assembly rooms and hotels; those which reproduce knowlege - museums, galleries, institutes; those used for production and exchange - mills, production utopias, markets, shops, and exchanges. Throughout, the book is lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, maps and plans. The book's concern is not for history but for the place of architecture in the modern world.It provokes questions about the ways we design, build and imagine our environment, about the ways architecture can liberate or confine our lives. Buildings and Power is addressed to those involved in the creation of the built environment - architects, planners and geographers; those engaged in the study of art and social history, social science and material culture; above all to anyone interested in buildings and what is written about them.

Seller Inventory # 9780415076654-SECONDHAND

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Buildings and Power: Freedom and Control in the Origin of Modern
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 041507665X
• ISBN 13: 9780415076654
• Binding: Paperback
• Book Type: Paperback

About this title

Synopsis

The material and cultural world in which we now live perhaps represents the end of a process created out of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. The battles fought over class, ideology and language are represented most clearly in the explosion of new building types during the Century of Revolutions.
Lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, maps and plans, Buildings and Power analyses architectural form, function and space to explore the reproduction and the subversion of power in the modern city.

About the Author

Thomas A. Markus