The oldest and most influential book ever written on architecture, this volume served as a guide to Bramante, Michelangelo, Palladio, Vignola, and countless others. It describes the classic principles of symmetry, harmony, and proportion as well as the ancients' methods, materials, and aesthetics. Authoritative translation by a distinguished Harvard professor. Read more

From one of the world's most imaginative designers comes a story about humanity told through the lens of our buildings.'This book is a super-accessible guide as to why we shouldn't put up with soulless buildings and how we might change that' GRAYSON PERRY*****Our world is losing its humanity.Too many developers care more about their shareholders than society. Too many politicians care more about power than the people who vote for them. And too many cities feel soulless and depressing, with buildings designed for business, not for us.So where do we find hope?Thomas Heatherwick has an alternative. By changing the world around us, we can improve our health, restore our happiness, and save our planet. The time has come to put human emotion back at the heart of the design process. Drawing on thirty years of making bold, beautiful buildings, neuroscience and cognitive psychology, Heatherwick brings together vivid stories and hundreds of beautiful images into a visual masterpiece. Humanise will inspire us to do nothing less than remake our world.*****'Thomas Heatherwick brings a velvet sledgehammer to the way we think about buildings and how they change our lives . . . I want to live in the kind of city Heatherwick imagines!' SIMON SINEK'Humanise is a masterwork. It's quietly furious, impassioned, rigorous and forensic in all the right doses. It leaves me very hopeful indeed about how things could go from here' ALAIN DE BOTTON Read more

Learn about key concepts behind the world's most incredible buildings in The Architecture Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Architecture in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Architecture Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Architecture, with:- A global scope, covering architecture from all over the world- Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts- A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout- Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understandingThe Architecture Book is a captivating introduction to buildings and the ideas, and principles that make them key to the history and evolution of our built environment - aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you'll discover the most important ideas, technologies, and movements in the history of architecture and structural engineering, through exciting text and bold graphics.Your Architecture Questions, Simply ExplainedLearn about the evolution of construction, from ancient and classical architecture through Medieval, Gothic, and Renaissance buildings, Baroque and Rococo, to 19th-century emerging modernism and postmodernism and glittering skyscrapers. If you thought it was difficult to learn about buildings and the ideas behind them, The Architecture Book presents key information in a clear layout. Explore architectural movements, styles and celebrated buildings from all over the world, and stunning religious structures from mosques to churches, stupas to pagodas and temples.The Big Ideas SeriesWith millions of copies sold worldwide, The Architecture Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand. Read more

In The Architecture of Happiness, bestselling author Alain de Botton explores one of our most intense but often hidden love affairs- with our houses and their furnishings. He asks- What makes a house truly beautiful? Why are many new houses so ugly? Why do we argue so bitterly about sofas and pictures - and can differences of taste ever be satisfactorily resolved? To answer these questions and many more, de Botton looks at buildings across the world, from medieval wooden huts to modern skyscrapers; he examines sofas and cathedrals, tea sets and office complexes, and teases out a host of often surprising philosophical insights. The Architecture of Happiness will take you on a beguiling tour through the history and psychology of architecture and interior design, and will change the way you look at your home. 'Entertaining, stimulating and witty. Clever, provocative and fresh as a daisy.' Literary Review 'De Botton's writing is elegant but utterly accessible . . . beautifully written and thought provoking . . . will make you look at your surroundings in a whole new way.' Image 'De Botton is a brave and highly intelligent writer.' Observer 'De Botton makes even the most challenging of subjects invitingly simple.' Eve 'A powerful eye-opener.' Mail on Sunday. Read more

Introducing Britain's finest examples of brutalist architecture.Brutalist architecture is more popular now than it has ever been. Imposing and dramatic, with monolithic concrete exteriors, it forms an enduring part of our post-war urban landscape. This beautifully photographed book is an authoritative survey of the finest British examples from the very late 1950s to the 1970s, from leading architectural writer Elain Harwood, following on from her acclaimed books on art deco and mid-century architecture.It features iconic public buildings like London’s National Theatre, imposing housing such as the Trellick Tower in West London and Park Hill in Sheffield, great educational institutions including the University of Sussex, and places of worship such as Liverpool’s glorious Metropolitan Cathedral, along with some lesser-known buildings such as Arlington House on Margate’s sea front.Headed up with an introduction that places British brutalism within the context of global events and contemporary world architecture, the huge range of buildings is arranged into Private Houses and Flats, Public Housing, Educational Buildings, Public Buildings, Shops, Markets and Town Centres, Culture and Sport, Places of Worship, Offices and Industry and Transport, and there is a chapter on the atmospheric brutalist sculptures and murals that dot our cities.If you’re part of the increasingly large ranks of brutalism fans, or interested in late 20th-century architecture and society in general, Brutalist Britain is the book for you. Read more

Beloved and contemplated by philosophers, architects, writers, and literary theorists alike, Bachelard's lyrical, landmark work examines the places in which we place our conscious and unconscious thoughts and guides us through a stream of cerebral meditations on poetry, art, and the blooming of consciousness itself.Houses and rooms; cellars and attics; drawers, chests and wardrobes; nests and shells; nooks and corners: no space is too vast or too small to be filled by our thoughts and our reveries.With an introduction by acclaimed philosopher Richard Kearney and a foreword by author Mark Z. Danielewski. Read more

Beautifully designed and featuring breathtaking photography, this book from the creator of The Modern House makes the perfect coffee table book and is the ultimate gift for home design enthusiasts 'A source of fascination, inspiration and fantasy' GuardianIn 2005, childhood friends Matt Gibberd and Albert Hill set out to convince people of the power of good design and its ability to influence our wellbeing. They founded The Modern House - in equal parts an estate agency, a publisher and a lifestyle brand - and went on to inspire a generation to live more thoughtfully and beautifully at home.As The Modern House grew, Matt and Albert came to realise that the most successful homes they encountered - from cleverly conceived studio flats to listed architectural masterpieces - had been designed with attention to the same timeless principles: Space, Light, Materials, Nature and Decoration.In this lavishly illustrated book, Matt tells the stories of these remarkable living spaces and their equally remarkable owners, and demonstrates how the five principles can be applied to your own space in ways both large and small. Revolutionary in its simplicity, and full of elegance, humour and joy, this book will inspire you to find happiness in the place you call home.PRAISE FOR THE MODERN HOUSE:'One of the best things in the world' GQ'The Modern House transformed our search for the perfect home' Financial Times'Nowhere has mastered the art of showing off the most desirable homes for both buyers and casual browsers alike than The Modern House' Vogue Read more

Western Architecture focuses both on the technological achievements of architects and on stylistic considerations, and stresses that architecture is both a part of history and an art form in its own right. Arranged chronologically, the book is divided into chapters on Classical, Early Christian, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, 19th-century revivalism, International Modernism and Post-Modernism, with each epoch’s most significant architects documented and described. A wide range of examples, both familiar buildings and many others rarely seen outside specialist books, illustrate the text, and space is given to Eastern Europe, previously neglected by architectural historians, as well as ideologically suspect styles such as Stalinist classicism. Read more

In this short book, Dan Hill outlines a new vocabulary of design, one that needs to be smuggled into the upper echelons of power. He asserts that, increasingly, effective design means engaging with the messy politics - the "dark matter" - taking place above the designer's head. Read more

Buildings are driven by human emotions and desires; hope, power, money, sex, the idea of home. In Why We Build Rowan Moore explores the making of buildings from conception to inhabitation and reveals the paradoxical power of architecture: it looks fixed and solid, but is always changing in response to the lives around it. Moving across the globe and through history, through works of folly, beauty, spectacle, and subtlety, Moore gives a provocative and iconoclastic view of what makes architecture, why it matters, and why we find it fascinating. You will never look at a building in the same way again. Read more

Featuring contributions from a range of significant voices in the field, this volume renews the conversation around what it means to speak of the ‘queer’ in the context of architecture, and offers a fresh take on the methodological and epistemological challenges this poses to the discipline of architectural theory. Architecture as a discipline, a profession and an applied practice, is always subordinate to its own conceptual framework, which is one of orderliness. It refers to buildings, but also to infrastructures of thought and knowledge, to conventions and taxonomies, to structures of governance, hierarchies of power and systems of administration. How, then, can one look at queering architectural discourse when the very term ‘queer’, celebrated for its elusive, slippery nature, resists and attacks such order?Divided into four subsections, the essays in this anthology each purse a distinct line of inquiry - methods, practices, spaces, and pedagogies - in order to help particularize the proposed queering of architecture. They demonstrate the paradoxical nature of the endeavour from a diverse range of perspectives – from the questions of mapping queer theory in architecture; to the issues of queer architectural archives, or lack thereof; to the non-Western linguistic challenges to the very term queer alongside decolonial approaches to architecture via indigeneity and landscape.Queering Architecture not only provides a bold challenge to the normative methods employed in architectural discourse but addresses the paradoxical nature of establishing ‘queer’ methodologies in itself. Essential reading for architectural and queer theorists. Read more

The most comprehensive photographic document of London council estates, with fascinating images from all 32 London boroughs and the City, featuring some 275 estates built between 1946 and 1981.Why are some London council estates considered notorious, while others are arguably the most desirable places to live in the capital? As the most comprehensive photographic document of the London council estate, this book provides an insight, featuring some 275 estates from every borough and the City.London Estates features the first post-war housing in Paddington, Islington and Romford; the Modernist schemes in Finsbury, Bethnal Green, Poplar, Wandsworth, Camberwell and the Cities of London and Westminster; the acclaimed 1960s estates of Camden and Lambeth; and the lesser-known 1970s estates of Kingston, Haringey, Havering, Hillingdon and Tower Hamlets.There are designs from a broad range of architects including Denys Lasdun (Keeling House, Trevelyan House); Chamberlin, Powell & Bon (Golden Lane Estate), Erno Goldfinger (Balfron Tower, Trellick Tower); Basil Spence (Stock Orchard Estate, Tustin Estate), and Kate Macintosh (Dawson’s Heights).A huge range of architectural styles are represented – from prefabricated and ‘self-built’ schemes, to Modernist and brutalist designs, including over 30 protected historic buildings.This book celebrates London council estates in all their diversity, championing the neglected alongside the distinguished, honouring their immeasurable contribution to the social and architectural fabric of the capital. Read more

In Housing Atlas, beautifully drawn plans, sections and elevations illustrate nearly a hundred of the most important European housing schemes of the 20th century, a period when architects addressed the multiple challenges of modern urban living and responded with an array of innovative solutions. Today, architects are revisiting these designs as they seek answers to the current housing crisis.Chronologically ordered, this is an essential survey of these key housing projects, produced by a pan-European team of leading scholars. Complete with contextual essays, the studies each include a history and analysis of the projects and the drawings are presented in a way that makes them readily comparable. Read more

A classic work on the joy of experiencing architecture, with a new afterword reflecting on architecture’s place in the contemporary moment “Architecture begins to matter,” writes Paul Goldberger, “when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads.” In Why Architecture Matters, he shows us how that works in examples ranging from a small Cape Cod cottage to the vast, flowing Prairie houses of Frank Lloyd Wright, from the Lincoln Memorial to the Guggenheim Bilbao. He eloquently describes the Church of Sant’Ivo in Rome as a work that “embraces the deepest complexities of human imagination.”   In his afterword to this new edition, Goldberger addresses the current climate in architectural history and takes a more nuanced look at projects such as Thomas Jefferson’s academical village at the University of Virginia and figures including Philip Johnson, whose controversial status has been the topic of much recent discourse. He argues that the emotional impact of great architecture remains vital, even as he welcomes the shift in the field to an increased emphasis on social justice and sustainability. Read more

Jonathan Meades has an obsessive preoccupation with places. He has spent thirty years constructing sixty films, two novels and hundreds of pieces of journalism that explore an extraordinary range of them, from natural landscapes to man-made buildings and 'the gaps between them', drawing attention to what he calls 'the rich oddness of what we take for granted'. This book collects fifty-four pieces and six film scripts that dissolve the barriers between high and low culture, good and bad taste, deep seriousness and black comedy. Meades delivers what he calls 'heavy entertainment' - strong opinions backed up by an astonishing depth of knowledge. To read Meades on places, buildings, politics or cultural history is an exhilarating workout for the mind. He leaves you better informed, more alert, less gullible. Read more

Unlike much of the existing writing on Tokyo that emphasises its oriental uniqueness and mysterious urban chaos, this richly illustrated book offers both visitors and specialists an unparalleled understanding of the surprising yet comprehensible design principles that explain Tokyo's most permeable, vibrant, and adaptive urban patternsEmergent Tokyo addresses a wide range of the city's critical topics and pervasive urban patterns, many of which are rarely mentioned in English-language discussions of the cityContains up-to-date information that captures the city's latest phenomena and bases its core arguments on brand-new primary researchSheds light on this neglected yet essential urbanism, explaining the role that such features play in Tokyo's thriving urban ecosystem and situating them within an overall theory of emergent urbanism This book examines the urban fabric of contemporary Tokyo as a valuable demonstration of permeable, inclusive, and adaptive urban patterns that required neither extensive master planning nor corporate urbanism to develop. These urban patterns are emergent: that is, they are the combined result of numerous modifications and appropriations of space by small agents interacting within a broader socio-economic ecosystem. Together, they create a degree of urban intensity and liveliness that is the envy of the world's cities. This book examines five of these patterns that appear conspicuously throughout Tokyo: yokocho alleyways, multi-tenant zakkyo buildings, undertrack infills, low-rise dense neighbourhoods, and the river-like ankyo streets. Unlike many of the discussions on Tokyo that emphasise cultural uniqueness, this book aims at transcultural validity, with a focus on empirical analysis of the spatial and social conditions that allow these patterns to emerge. The authors of Emergent Tokyo acknowledge the distinct character of Tokyo without essentialising or fetishising it, offering visitors, architects, and urban policy practitioners an unparalleled understanding of Tokyo's urban landscape. Read more

Leading expert and passionate advocate of modern British architecture Elain Harwood gives the best overview of British architecture from 1938 to 1963 – mid-century buildings.Growing in popularity and with an increasing understanding of their importance as a background to our lives, the buildings range from the Royal Festival Hall, Newcastle City Hall and to Deal Pier and Douglas ferry terminal, from prefabs and ice cream parlours to Coventry Cathedral and the Golden Lane Estate. The author writes in non-technical, layman's language about the design, architecture and also the influence of these buildings on the lives of our towns and cities.  The author has arranged the huge variety of buildings into: Houses and Flats: Churches and Public Buildings; Offices; Shops; Showrooms and Cafes; Hotels and Public Houses; Cinemas, Theatres and Concert Halls; Industrial Buildings and Transport. There is an insightful introduction that places these buildings in the context of 20th-century architecture generally and globally. All fantastically photographed to make this a must have for anyone interested in our built heritage. Postwar Britain architects often saw architecture as a powerful means to improve the quality of our lives after the shadow of war. This is the fascinating story of what they built to meet that challenge. Cover illustration by Paul Catherall Read more

Prince Charles stresses the need to preserve the unique character of towns and cities, the desirability of reviewing existing planning laws, and the importance of providing architecture on a human scale. 300 color photos. Read more

Containing over 6,000 entries from Aalto to Zwinger and written in a clear and concise style, this authoritative dictionary covers architectural history in detail, from ancient times to the present day. It also includes concise biographies of hundreds of architects from history (excluding living persons), from Sir Francis Bacon and Imhotep to Liang Ssu-ch'eng and FrancisInigo Thomas. The text is complemented by over 260 beautiful and meticulous line drawings, labelled cross-sections, and diagrams. These include precise drawings of typical building features, making it easy for readers to identify particular period styles.This third edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture has been extensively revised and expanded, with over 900 new entries including hundreds of definitions of garden and landscape terms such as Baroque garden, floral clock, hortus conclusus, and Zen garden-design. Each entry is followed by a mini-bibliography, with suggestions for further reading. The full bibliography to the first edition (previously onlyavailable online) has also been fully updated and expanded, and incorporated into this new edition.This is an essential work of reference for anyone with an interest in architectural and garden history. With clear descriptions providing in-depth analysis, it is invaluable for students, professional architects, art historians, and anyone interested in architecture and garden design, and provides a fascinating wealth of information for the general reader. Read more