Showing papers on "Architecture published in 1977"

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

Abstract: You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language. At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people. At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. "Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.

The language of post-modern architecture

Abstract: This book, now in its 6th edition, has become a classic. Written in 1977, it was the first to define Post-Modernism in architecture - an event which led to its subsequent adoption in other fields. Perhaps no other book has had such importance in shaping opinions and practice, and this 6th edition brings the story up to date. "The Language of Post-Modern Architecture" is unique in combining a theoretical treatment of the architectural language with a record of the Post-Modern movement at 6 different stages in its history; a book which has helped steer the course of this tradition and now, at the very moment of its troubled success, charts a new direction. In it, the reader will find the key buildings of Robert Venturi, Michael Graves, James Stirling, Hans Hollein, Aldo Rossi, Ed Jones, Charles Moore, Cesar Pelli, Arata Isozaki and many others who have influenced the course of this major architectural movement.

Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

Abstract: First published in 1966, and since translated into 16 languages, this remarkable book has become an essential document of architectural literature. A "gentle manifesto for a nonstraightforward architecture," Venturi's "Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture" expresses in the most compelling and original terms the postmodern rebellion against the purism of modernism. Three hundred and fifty architectural photographs serve as historical comparisons and illuminate the author's ideas on creating and experiencing architecture. "Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture" was the winner of the Classic Book Award at the AIA's Seventh Annual International Architecture Book Awards.

The dynamics of architectural form

Abstract: Rudolf Arnheim has been known, since the publication of his groundbreaking "Art and Visual Perception" in 1974, as an authority on the psychological interpretation of the visual arts Two anniversary volumes celebrate the landmark anniversaries of his works in 2009 In "The Power of the Center", Arnheim uses a wealth of examples to consider the actors that determine the overall organization of visual form in works of painting, sculpture, and architecture "The Dynamics of Architectural Form" explores the unexpected perceptual consequences of architecture with Arnheim's customary clarity and precision

Computer-aided architectural design

Abstract: This book is intended to provide a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of computer-aided architectural design for the students of architecture, the architect in practice, and the computer professional who is interested in learning about this application area

Perception and lighting as formgivers for architecture

Abstract: Environmental objectives and human needs. The process of visual perception. The design of the luminous environment. Case studies.

Understanding Professional Media

Abstract: Ever since the emergence of professions and trades, when most people stopped designing and building directly by hand, media have played a pivotal role in communicating to clients proposals for future environments. Virtually all major development decisions are now made on the basis of simulations. This dependence has not been without its problems. Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “When man began to draw, architecture was lost.” His own work, a lifelong effort to reestablish a direct contact between the architect and the building, by having his students learn construction and build their own living quarters, had little effect on the inexorable trend toward dependence on simulation. Today, as communications and transportation have become cheaper, for better or worse, professionals can design buildings in one part of the globe to be constructed in another part without ever seeing the site or final product in the flesh. All can be done with simulation.

A history of architecture

Abstract: 19th edition of the work originally written by Sir Banister Fletcher of which a substantial part has been rewritten, updated and rearranged. The new material covers in particular the history of architecture in Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Far East and Australia. New chapters on 20th century architecture have also been added.

Morality and architecture

Abstract: Development of a theme in architectural history and theory from the gothic revival (pugin and viollet-le-duc) to the modern movement.

Moscow: An architectural history

Abstract: Introduction. Part 1: Medieval Moscow the emergence of Muscovy, new building in the Kremlin, the city at the end of the 15th century, St Basils, tenuous contacts with the English, the rise of Boris Godunov. Part 2: Moscow in the 17th century tower churches, Patriarch Nikon, asymetry in architecture, Western influence on architecture, the city at the ned of the 17th century. Part 3: The 18th century - decline, stagnation, rebirth Petrine Moscow, St Petrsburg, Moscow reawakens - the Baroque of Prince Ukhtomsky, Catherine and the genius of Bazhenov, the city matures. Part 4: The aftermath of Napoleon and the rise of eclecticism the fire, reconstruction, Moscow rebuilt - the cumulation of the classical era, the decline of classical architecture and the rise of eclecticism, industrial growth and the lack of direction in architecture, Moscow at the end of the 19th century. Part 5: The tumult of the 20th century the search for new architecture, the revolution, the first decade, eclecticism in Soviet architecture, restoration from 1931 to today, about face - the return to modern design.

Identifying American Architecture: A Pictorial Guide to Styles and Terms, 1600-1945

Abstract: Have you ever been intrigued by a beautiful building and wondered when it was built? Identifying American Architecture provides the answer to such questions in a concise handbook perfect for preservationists, architects, students, and tourists alike With 214 photographs, it allows readers to associate real buildings with architectural styles, elements, and orders Identifying American Architecture was designed to be used - carried about and kept handy for frequent reference Every photograph is keyed to an explanatory legend pointing out characteristic features of each building's style Trade bookstores order from WW Norton, NY

Energy and Patterns of Land Use

Abstract: ENERGY AND PATTERNS OF LAND USE Philip Steadman is Assistant Director of the Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge. He is author of Energy, Environment and Building. His article, based on a recent Peacock Commemorative Lecture given at the University of Minnesota, discusses building and transport energy costs as a function of land-use planning.

A chronology of architecture in los angeles

Abstract: The study of urban architecture requires a correlation of forms with their cultural, economic, and political determinants. The chronology of residential architecture in metropolitan Los Angeles reflects changes in population density, construction technology, cultural myths, and environmental fantasies. Neither chaotic in form nor haphazard in evolution, urban residential architecture is the record of a plural society.

Toward a Human Architecture: A Sociologist's View of the Profession

Abstract: (1977). Toward a Human Architecture: A Sociologist's View of the Profession. Journal of Architectural Education: Vol. 31, Research on the Profession, pp. 26-31.

Architecture in Prehispanic Pueblo Archaeology: Examples from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Abstract: Frequent mention is made of architecture in archaeological studies of the prehispanic Pueblos of the American South‐west and architectural remains form major data for these studies. Very few archaeologists in the Pueblo area, however, attempt to include architecture (as an artefact) in broader models of the culture and virtually none have mentioned or used works from architectural theory. Although the disciplines of archaeology and architecture overlap in their concern with understanding people‐environment relationships, architecture differs from archaeology in its focus on spatial organization and on the communicative aspects of the built environment. Brief examples from studies of the prehispanic architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, are here used to suggest that such architectural viewpoints may be useful in archaeological interpretation.

Current Issues in the Architecture of Microprocessors

Abstract: Despite the fact that microcomputers have existed commercially for only five years, microcomputer architecture is not an entirely new field. It is, rather, the application of the general principles of computer architecture to microcomputers. In "Planning a Computer System," Frederick P. Brooks Jr. defines computer architecture as being, like other architecture, "the art of determining the needs of the user of the structure and then designing to meet those needs as effectively as possible within economic and technological constraints."1