Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities (Architecture Briefs)

Lange, Alexandra

ISBN 10: 1616890533 / ISBN 13: 9781616890537

Published by Princeton Architectural Press, 2012

About this Item

Still in publisher's shrinkwrap.

Seller Inventory # GREY5WAA

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities (Architecture Briefs)
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1616890533
• ISBN 13: 9781616890537
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 17 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities, the latest addition to the Architecture Briefs series, is a handbook on how to write effectively and critically about the contemporary city. The book offers works by some of the best architecture critics of the twentieth century including Ada Louise Huxtable, Lewis Mumford, Herbert Muschamp, Michael Sorkin, Charles Moore, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Jane Jacobs to explains some of the most successful methods with which to approach architectural criticism. Each chapter opens with a reprint of a historically significant essay (and organized by typology such as the skyscraper, the museum, and parks) discussing a specific building or urban project. The author, Alexandra Lange, then offers a close reading of that essay, as well as her own analysis through contemporary examples, to further enlighten the reader about how to write an effective piece of architectural criticism.

This book, based on lessons learned from the author's courses at New York University and the School of Visual Arts, could serve as the primary text for a course on criticism for undergraduates or architecture and design majors. Architects covered include Marcel Breuer, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Field Operations, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Frederick Law Olmsted, SOM, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

About the Author

Alexandra Lange is an architecture and design critic, journalist, and historian. Her work has appeared in The Architect's Newspaper, Design Observer, Dwell, Icon, Metropolis, New York Magazine, and The New York Times, and she teaches architecture criticism at NYU and the School of Visual Arts. She blogs in the Observers Room at Design Observer weekly, and is also active on Twitter (@langealexandra) and Tumblr (abitlate.tumblr.com).