Автор: John Mansbridge
Название: Graphic History of Architecture
Издательство: Hennessey & Ingalls
Год: 1999
ISBN: 978-0940512153
Язык: English
Формат: pdf
Размер: 43,2 mb
Страниц: 192 p.: ill.

The combination of plans and elevations and the use of cutaway and isometric drawings show, in a way that neither words nor even photographs could do, the three-dimensional form and dynamic construction of buildings. In particular the author emphasizes the close interaction, in every age, between technique and style. The book’s format is generous and the illustrations arc both large and numerous; in all some 2,000 individual drawings—of buildings, ground plans, and architectural details—arc included. Equally important, the format provides ample scope for comparative drawings spread across facing pages, which show, at a single glance, the gradual transition from one style to another, as from Romanesque to Perpendicular Gothic or from Renaissance to Baroque. In this way the reader can appreciate both the differences and the continuity between successive periods.

Architecture does not exist in a cultural or social vacuum, and Mr. Mansbridge also explains the historical conditions that called for buildings of a specific type and the economic and artistic forces that influenced their design by means of maps, time charts, and other graphic material, as well as a brief introduction to each main period. But, above all, Mr. Mansbridge stresses the decisive part played by the technical knowledge and the materials available at a particular time and place. The combined effect of new techniques and materials on design is highlighted in the section on contemporary architecture.