Architecture: A Very Short Introduction

Book Description
This highly original and sophisticated look at architecture helps us to understand the cultural significance of the buildings that surround us. It avoids the traditional style-spotting approach and instead gives us an idea of what it is about buildings that moves us, and what it is that makes them important artistically and culturally. The book begins by looking at how architecture acquires meaning through tradition, and concludes with the exoticism of the recent avant-garde period. Illustrations of particular buildings help to anchor the general points with specific examples, from ancient Egypt to the present day.


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The balance of posterity and practicality in architecture throughout history, and its cultural relevance - from the Pyramids of Ancient Egypt to the Sydney Opera House, starkly contrasted with common cottage dwellings - are skillfully examined in this Very Short Introduction. While the reader is introduced to particular historical periods, and to particular styles such as 'baroque' and 'modern', Andrew Ballantyne goes beyond this to explore the economic, political, and aesthetic significance of buildings, looking at how architecture acquires meaning through tradition and how it contributes to our sense of who we are.


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