Books in Architecture series

For the Swiss-born architect and city planner Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, 1887–1965), architecture constituted a noble art, an exalted calling in which the architect combined plastic invention, intellectual speculation, and higher mathematics to go beyond mere utilitarian needs, beyond "style," to achieve a pure creation of the spirit which established "emotional relationships by means of raw materials." The first major exposition of his ideas appeared in Vers une Architecture (1923), a compilation of articles originally written by Le Corbusier for his own avant-garde magazine, L'Esprit Nouveau. The present volume is an unabridged English translation of the 13th French edition of that historic manifesto, in which Le Corbusier expounded his technical and aesthetic theories, views on industry, economics, relation of form to function, the "mass-production spirit," and much else. A principal prophet of the "modern" movement in architecture, and a near-legendary figure of the "International School," he designed some of the twentieth century's most memorable buildings: Chapel at Ronchamp; Swiss dormitory at the Cité Universitaire, Paris; Unité d'Habitation, Marseilles; and many more.Le Corbusier brought great passion and intelligence to these essays, which present his ideas in a concise, pithy style, studded with epigrammatic, often provocative, observations: "American engineers overwhelm with their calculations our expiring architecture." "Architecture is stifled by custom. It is the only profession in which progress is not considered necessary." "A cathedral is not very beautiful . . ." and "Rome is the damnation of the half-educated. To send architectural students to Rome is to cripple them for life." Profusely illustrated with over 200 line drawings and photographs of his own works and other structures he considered important, Towards a New Architecture is indispensable reading for architects, city planners, and cultural historians―but will intrigue anyone fascinated by the wide-ranging ideas, unvarnished opinions, and innovative theories of one of this century's master builders.

Amid the soaring grandeur of arches and spires lurks a more down-to-earth architectural flourish: the grinning head of a gargoyle. Singly and clustered, these intriguing creatures form as distinctive an element of Gothic architecture as the flying buttress. Nowhere are they more prominent than along the walls of French cathedrals, and this magnificently illustrated volume prowls the ramparts of those medieval buildings to discover hundreds of authentic gargoyle carvings.According to tradition, the gargoyles were posted as sentries, to ward off malevolent spirits and to remind parishioners of the evil beyond the church doors. Author Lester Burbank Bridaham takes a more optimistic view. Noting the stone guardians' whimsical nature, he discusses the artisanal ingenuity involved in their creation. He also points out how they represented a rare sense of freedom in the Middle Ages, in terms of public satire and unbridled artistic enthusiasm. As this book reveals, the timeless appeal of the gargoyle — whether symbolic, spiritual, decorative, or fanciful — continues to captivate the imagination.

Meticulously accurate line drawings and fascinating text trace Manhattan's growth from a tiny Dutch outpost to the commercial, financial, and cultural heart of the world. This book explains construction above and below ground, including the excavation of subway lines and the building of bridges and skyscrapers. Hundreds of illustrations reveal intricate details of construction techniques.Author and illustrator Donald A. Mackay traces Manhattan's history from its first wood, stone, and brick houses to its famous modern structures, including the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and the World Trade Center. Along with historical background, he presents clear explanations and illustrations of the skilled labor and methods behind the island's tunnels, bridges, and train lines. Mackay describes who does what at a construction site, the assembly of a tower crane, and the construction of skyscrapers, from the foundations to the floor-by-floor elevations, along with other amazing procedures that are all part of a day's work in building the big city.

Spurred by a rapidly expanding economy and abundant resources of land, building materials and skilled labor, the dream of building and owning one's own home became a reality in America in the 1920s. With the beginning market for small- to medium-sized one-family dwellings came a succession of innovative home designs that transformed American domestic architecture.This outstanding book presents 500 small-home designs of the 1920s as they appeared in a major architectural publication of 1923. Many are by leading domestic architects of the period. Each design is presented in a handsome perspective drawing or photograph, along with floor plans and a description of its principal features.The designs reflect many variations on the basic themes of American colonial architecture, updated by new construction technology and the design aesthetics of the post‒World War I era. The Bungalow and semi-bungalow were perhaps the biggest design news of the times, and they are generously represented in this huge collection. Because of the practicality and good looks of the best of these designs, and perhaps for the nostalgia they evoke, many are being revived today by builders and buyers in communities across America.Architects, architectural, and social historians, students and enthusiasts of architecture and design will find in these pages a rich selection of small-home concepts that once set the standard for a new era in American home design, and that still form an integral part of our landscape many decades after their first inspiration.

"I believe architecture must be the beginning of arts, and that the others must follow her in their time and order; and I think the prosperity of our schools of painting and sculpture, in which no one will deny the life, though many the health, depends upon that of our architecture." — John Ruskin.In August of 1848, John Ruskin and his new bride visited northern France, for the gifted young critic wished to write a work that would examine the essence of Gothic architecture. By the following April, the book was finished. Titled The Seven Lamps of Architecture, it was far more than a treatise on the Gothic style; instead, it elaborated Ruskin's deepest convictions of the nature and role of architecture and its aesthetics. The book was published to immediate acclaim and has since become an acknowledged classic.The "seven lamps" are Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory, and Obedience. In delineating the relationship of these terms to architecture, Ruskin distinguishes between architecture and mere building. Architecture is an exalting discipline that must dignify and ennoble public life. It must preserve the purity of the materials it uses; and it must serve as a source of power and renewal for the society that produces it. The author expounds these and many other ideas with exceptional passion and knowledge, expressed in a masterly prose style.Today, Ruskin's timeless observations are as relevant as they were in Victorian times, making The Seven Lamps of Architecture required reading for architects, students, and other lovers of architecture, who will find in these pages a thoughtful and inspiring approach to one of man's noblest endeavors.This authoritative edition includes excellent reproductions of the 14 original plates of Ruskin's superb drawings of architectural details from such structures as the Doge's Palace in Venice, Giotto's Campanile in Florence, and the Cathedral of Rouen.

"So remember, and bear ever in mind in your thinking and your doings, that FORM EVER FOLLOWS FUNCTION, that this is the law — a universal truth."One of the foremost exponents of form-and-function architecture, and considered by many to be the father of the modern skyscraper, Louis Henri Sullivan (1856–1924) was one of America's most original and influential architects, and an extraordinarily important writer on the nature and function of architecture. Known for his many commercial buildings — Auditorium Building in Chicago (1889), Wainwright Building in St. Louis (1891), Prudential Building in Buffalo (1895), and Carson, Pirie and Scott Building in Chicago (1899 & 1903) — Sullivan is equally admired today for his two major books: The Autobiography of an Idea and Kindergarten Chats.In this creative, seminal work, his theories about architecture, art, education, and life in general are presented in the form of dialogues, or "chats," between an architect and a novice. Sullivan's contempt for 19th-century eclectic architecture ("That the bulk of our architecture is rotten to the core, is a statement which does not admit of one solitary doubt"), his striving for a more functional approach, and his theory of the skyscraper are just a few of the principles and insights that emerge in these pages. As the architect and writer Claude Bragdon has remarked: "Kindergarten Chats remains in my memory as one of the most provocative, amusing, astounding, inspiring things that I have ever read."This edition is the first low-priced reprint of the 1918 definitive edition of Kindergarten Chats, which was personally revised by Sullivan himself, who rewrote those chapters and generally streamlined the argument of the original version. Eight additional papers, covering the years 1885–1906, supplement the basic text: they include "Ornament in Architecture," "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered," "The Young Man in Architecture," and "What is Architecture?" Architecture students, architects, artists, educators, and readers who enjoy the stimulus of a lively and iconoclastic mind will all be attracted by the magnetic power of this bold, thought-provoking book.

Reprinted from a major 1923 architectural publication: perspective drawings, floor plans, and descriptions of the principal features of outstanding 1920s small homes, many by leading architects of the period, most inspired by colonial architecture and the bungalow concept. 1,135 black-and-white line illustrations, 262 black-and-white photographs and tone drawings.