Reddit mentions: The best architecture history books

There are treatises like, "James Gibbs' ~ Rules for Drawing the Several Parts of Architecture..." which go into detail with all the particular relationships and proportions of his orders. But this is but only one set of many sets of the orders who are all trying to arrive at the most harmonious method. Some use the column diameter as a measure, some use divisions of height, or other fractional measures (e.g. 100 or 96 part-systems). Some architects prefer one method over another, think some are just plain erroneous, or supplement their own methods and are free to develop their own treatise. The variability of proportion has historically been wildly varied.

The traditions of architecture are not handed down to us to be taken verbatim, rather they are OUR tradition and subject to our own rationality and convictions. Further more, these rules that are described respect an overarching grammar and syntax of form. Treatises of those like Gibbs take for granted that architects understand this language and are only giving the details of particular elements and some arrangements. They are much more like descriptions of keys on a piano and basic chords, not illustrating how to compose particular songs, or even the theory of music in general. Likewise, the classical orders are systems of organization like music theory provides a framework for creating good music.

For an attempt at understanding the language of classical architecture you will have to invest time and reading as it is a huge topic. A great start would be reading Classical Architecture: An Introduction to Its Vocabulary and Essentials, with a Select Glossary of Terms as well as The Classical Language of Architecture by Summerson. The question you pose is a bit like asking for a good book to read on the topic of creating good music, or becoming a great chef. Architecture, like the others, is an art after all, and most learning comes from doing.

Well I studied in the UK, so not sure. However, I did go to Kuwait University one summer and I met with the head of the architecture department. I was spending time there and wanted to study traditional Islamic architecture, and I had a family contact to the department head. Anyway he was surprised and said sorry, we don't have any classes on that. So I asked.. 'well.. what do you teach here?' He responded: 'You know... Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Frank Lloyd Wright...'

So that's not a good sign.

Regarding architectural trends, my feeling is that the GCC states are going through a phase of tribal modern. My own theory is that in the 50s and 60s, Gulf nations were building in what can be called Islamic Classicism. Iraqi architect Mohamed Makkiya designed Kuwait's Grand Mosque. He used Abbasid and Moorish elements in the design, and he was extremely popular across the new oil-rich states. You see other examples, such as this Islamic centre in Doha. It's based on the 9th century Samarra Mosque in Iraq, and the Ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo from the same century. In general, the architecture of the GCC states was a schizophrenic development - famous foreign architects building straightforward modernist cities and buildings, with local architects following more classical Islamic style.

After a few decades, these states began to exert more focus on their own sovereignty and heritage. So you start to see lots of buildings rejecting Islamic architecture, and basing their design on sand dunes, dhows, pearling, waves, and most of all, malqafs (wind towers), and crenellations. If you visit Kuwait or especially the UAE, you'll see wind towers on everything - shopping malls, garages, gas stations, bridges. Look at Souq Sharq in Kuwait. Of course these aren't real wind towers. Just decorative. In Oman, everything has crenellations. Because Oman is famous for its forts and fortified villages, very similar to Qasbahs and crenellated mosques in the Maghreb and Andalusia (because they were actual military structures). So now everything has to have crenellations. Qatar has gone the same route, just check out the new Ministry of Interior building. I'm not sure whether the famous Qatari forts are even Qatari, or whether they are Ottoman built.. but whatever. The point is that each state is exerting its own style evoking a patriotic national bedouin past. Kuwait's parliament building was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, and is one of the earliest examples of this in my opinion. It's based on the bedouin tent.

In terms of domestic architecture, traditional Arabic-Islamic design is non-existent. The building regulations and codes don't allow for the density needed for vernacular architecture of the region, and the masterplans that created the codes were all done by European, mainly British, architects.

In terms of sources, it depends on what your main interest is. I mainly used academic papers, because the topic of urban transformation of the GCC isn't well researched at all. There are a few interesting academics writing about the tragedy of urbanism in the GCC. Like Saleh al-Hathloul, Ashraf Salama, Yasser Mahgoub, and Fadl al-Buainain. I relied heavily on the Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, and the now defunct Mimar magazine and Muqarnas journal.

This is an excellent book by a Tunisian author, but it's very dry and academic, and the pictures all black and white, so not sure that's what you're looking for.

Arts and Crafts of the Islamic Lands is an excellent book. It covers geometry and calligraphy and has lots of instructional stuff. Not really about architecture.

Contemporary Architecture In the Arab States is a classic. It looks at the best MENA architecture from the 70s to the 90s. Doesn't talk about urbanism though.

The book I linked to previously, Kuwait Transformed, by Farah al-Nakib, is a great book, but focuses entirely on Kuwait.

This is an absolutely fantastic book, but I could only find it at the uni library. It's a collection of research papers from a conference in the 1980s. I even contacted the organization in SAudi to try to find out if they have any copies i could get, but predictably, didn't get a response.

If you're interested in regular traditional architecture of the MENA region, with some nice pictures (hand sketches), that covers each country, then this is absolutely fantastic.

I could go on forever with these sources, but I think mine may be too specific for your interest. Something like this or this cover general Islamic architecture well, but they focus always on mosques and monuments. That's why I really enjoy Raguette's book, because it focuses on domestic and vernacular architecture.

Sorry for the long rambly reply.

As an architecture student who asked himself this same question not so long ago I'd say:

• Modern Architecture: A Critical History by Kenneth Frampton.
  The most introductory, simple to understand, first book you should pick up when ready to jump into some actual architecture. This is the book that you need to read even before architecture school, for your entrance test and just because.
  
  
• Architecture of the City by Aldo Rossi.
  This one is also an easy read that will make you realise how important architecture is for us as human beings, as a society, as a city, as a community, as people... how architecture is not just a free standing building by some "starchitect" in a magazine but a part of something bigger. Great read and one of my favourites.
  
  
• Towards a new architecture by Le Corbusier.
  Love him or hate him Le Corbusier changed the world and studying and understanding how and why will greatly help you understand architecture today. This book might be a bit philosophical and theoretical but it's written for people to understand, not just architects. A must read I'd say.
  
  
• Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture by Christian Norberg-Schulz.
  I'd say this is a book you should read to complement and expand on Aldo Rossi's. Genius Loci is the spirit of a place, it's character and distinctive self. Great read.
  
  
• Architecture As Space by Bruno Zevi.
  Great book to understand how Architecture are not just façades and photos but designed spaces and experiences and how we experience them with our senses, the way they make us feel. This book will make you look at architecture from a different perspective, and you will since then experience the world differently.
  
  BONUS:
  
  
• 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick. Simple and to the point, might not seem like much and honestly don't take it too seriously but it's nice to keep around and going through it will remind you of things that sometimes we tend to forget.
  
  Hope this helps and gets you started on a good path. :) Have a nice day.

When you use the pyramid inch, supposedly discovered by Isaac Newton, to measure the great pyramid at Giza, an astounding array of accurate measurements can be decoded.

The pyramid inch, or "PI", is 1.0011 inches, or 1.0010846752 British inches.

Here's a small list of these measurements:

1. The Great Pyramid is located at the center of the land mass of the earth. The east/west parallel that crosses the most land and the north/south meridian that crosses the most land intersect in two places on the earth, one in the ocean and the other at the Great Pyramid.
   
   
2. Length of year: The length of a base side is 9131 pyramid inches measured at the mean socket level, or 365.24 pyramid cubits, which is the number of days in a year. [9131/25 = 365.24, accurate to 5 digits] note: 365.24 is the length of the Tropical Year, not the Julian year, which is 365.25 days long.
   
   
3. Value of Pi: The perimeter of the base divided by twice the height = Pi to 5 decimal places [9131x4/5813x2 = 3.141579+]
   
   
4. Mass of the Earth: The weight of the pyramid is estimated at 5,955,000 tons. Multiplied by 10^15 gives a reasonable estimate of the earth's mass (The mass of the earth is thought to be approximately 5.972 sextillion tons. Both of these numbers are estimates).
   
   
5. The Great Pyramid is constructed so as to maintain a constant temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit. It is also "tuned" to the note F#. The F# chord was supposedly important in ancient Egyptian lore and was equated with the harmonics of our planet.
   
   
6. Mean Distance to Sun: The height of the pyramid (including the missing capstone) times 10^9 represents an approximation of the mean radius of the earth's orbit around the sun, or Astronomical Unit (AU). [5813 pyramid inches x 10^9 ≈ 91,850,000 miles. AU= 92,955,807.3 mi]
   
   
7. The 3 Pyramids at the Giza complex mirror the Orion Constellation: The pyramid positions on the ground are a reflection of the positions of the stars in the constellation Orion circa 10,400 B.C.
   
   
8. If the height of the pyramid is taken as the radius of a circle, then the circumference of this circle is the same as the perimeter of the base. This provided the complimentary squaring of a circle and circling of a square. The key to this relationship is knowledge of the value of Pi and designing the angle of the pyramid to be exactly 51 degrees, 51 minutes, and 14.3 seconds. Circumference=2πr=2π(5813)=36524. Perimeter=9131x4=36524. This number is also almost exactly 100 times the length of days in the year!
   
   Christoper Dunn has written two excellent books on the subject that the pyramid at Giza could function as a power plant, here's a link to the first
   
   Joseph P. Farrell has taken that hypothesis further in this book by claiming the Great Pyramid could also function as a super-weapon
   
   Farrell also demonstrates that even minute measurements like Planck's constant seem to be encoded in the pyramid as well, suggesting it was created by a civilization that had achieved extreme scientific sophistication.
   
   Here's a lovely little snippet from Wikipedia:
   
   "The Great Pyramid at Giza...was built with a perimeter of approximately 1760 cubits and a height of 280 cubits; the ratio 1760/280 is about equal to 2π. A few pyrimdologists [sic] conclude from this value that the pyramid builders had knowledge of π and deliberately designed the pyramid to incorporate the value. However, mainstream historians believe that ancient Egyptians had no concept of π and that it is merely a coincidence that the ratio of perimeter to height is about 2π."
   
   Still think it's all a coincidence?
   
   Edit: fixed typos and added #8 and the wikipedia quote from the article on "Pi"

Okay, I'm not going into architecture really but I would like to have some advice. I'm in illustration and I'm looking on learning how to design and get the fundamentals of architecture. I'm pretty decent at perspective (I'm in technical illustration) and I mainly want to learn the thought process. Some books mentioned in this thread are pretty interesting and I'm contemplating on maybe buying one or 2. Although before I do I was wondering if anyone can enlighten me on these books I've found on my own but unsure about the quality:

http://www.amazon.com/City-Shaped-Patterns-Meanings-Through/dp/0821220160/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373412339&sr=1-1&keywords=The+City+Shaped%3A+Urban+Patterns+and+Meanings+Through+History

^ This books seems really promising, but of course the price puts me off a little (I plan on buying more than one book) anyone have this book? Seems really great for inspiration and learning how cities develop.

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Architecture-Francis-D-Ching/dp/1118142063/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373412493&sr=1-1&keywords=Introduction+to+Architecture

^ again another promising book but the price Q.Q Same issue as the other book above. Feedback is appreciated.

http://www.amazon.com/Architectural-Graphics-Francis-D-Ching/dp/0470399112/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373412567&sr=1-1&keywords=Architectural+Graphics

http://www.amazon.ca/Interior-Design-Illustrated-Francis-Ching/dp/1118090713/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=9P9QTDTSZXLG&coliid=I248RXWWVDQ6NZ

I'm basically looking at Ching's books. Last one is a .ca amazon.

People of the Book is almost pornography for bibliophiles. This book had me seriously considering going back to school to learn about document preservation.

I went through a period of wanting to read a lot of books about books about a year ago. I think I even have an old submission in r/books on the same subject. Here are a bunch of books I still have on my amazon wishlist that date to around that time. This will be a shotgun blast of suggestions, and some may be only tangentially related, but I figure more is better. If I can think of even more than this, I'll edit later:

The Man who Loved Books Too Much

Books that Changed the World

The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages

How to Read and Why

The New Lifetime Reading Plan

Classics for Pleasure

An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in the World of Books

The Library at Night

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

Time Was Soft There

I have even more around here somewhere...

Edit: Ok, found a couple more....

Among the Gently Mad: Strategies and Perspectives for the Book-Hunter in the 21st Century

At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries

Candida Hofer

Libraries in the Ancient World

The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read

A Short History of the Printed Word

Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption

Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work

The Book on the Bookshelf

A History of Illuminated Manuscripts

Bookmaking: Editing, Design, Production

Library: An Unquiet History

Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms

A Passion for Books: A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books

A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books

And yet I still can't find the one I'm thinking of. Will get back to you...

Fuck yeah, I found it!

That last is more about the woman who own the store than about books, but it's awash in anecdotes about writers and stories we all know and love. Check it out.

My first websites were www.danimation.com and http://thrillride.com/. Danimation was primarily forums for RCT, but had other forums for "real" coasters among other things, and had a really great tight knit community. Thrillride had excellent ride reviews from Robert Coker (who later published a book) but also included regular news pieces and the craziest and most entertaining rumors I've ever read.

www.screamscape.com has always been a great place for news and rumors as well, and I don't think the site design has changed since the early 2000's.

At some point in time Thrillride started forums of their own, but it was always a shitshow. I don't quite remember the timeline, but that eventually became www.thrillnetwork.com (which was also a shitshow) and Thrillride reverted to it's original purpose.

Coasterbuzz was always a great place for news and forums as well, even if the community was a tad cliquey.

And as usual there was likely hundreds of personal pages that have fallen by the wayside. I remember there used to be a a few pages just simply dedicated to all the links, and it used to be fun to browse them all, but it's all gone now.

rec. roller-coaster on Usenet predated everything, but I never browsed much on there (because I had no idea how to use it lol). I always wonder if I was missing out.

I always enjoy these trips down memory lane, but the older I get and the more consolidated the internet gets on these big social media sites (like Reddit) I start to wonder if the old stuff ever existed at all.

This book is a great one; it's one of my personal favorites. It's got wonderful pictures, plenty of information, and includes every Pritzker Prize winner (kind of like Architect of the Year in a way). Anyways, it's good for a coffee table or a student.

A book my friend just showed me is The Barefoot Architect

It focuses on how to build a house, or settlement in different kinds of climates so that the dwelling(s) don't struggle to create a comfortable living space, but instead create a comfortable living space passively, using solar heating, wind cooling etc.

If all human decisions were made from a good design perspective, we'd have long ago covered the world with effective systems and permanent housing with little upkeep. We'd have to work only a small amount to provide our needs, and things could look a lot like Utopia. That said, our lives would be quite different, and we'd likely not have grapes or oranges in the winter and we'd likely not have ipads or cell phones.

Thanks, I had seen that a while back. Seems the MoMa has digitized a lot of their exhibition catalogs.

The exhibition occurred well before I was born, but some of the old-timer classicists in New York still talk about how deeply it affected them upon seeing those spectacular drawings on display. It was unlike anything they had seen before, and unlike anything they were doing in school.

I'm still floored at the beauty of those drawings and the architectural designs they produced then, and can't fathom myself being able to do anything of equal merit.

A book full of amazing full-color drawings of the Prix de Rome winners is available.

I'm sure this has come up before, but I'm curious about coaster media that got you into the hobby like books, video games, movies, and tv specials. I know I and a few others were drawn in via Roller Coaster Tycoon (and this book too, in my case), but I'd like to know what other media's been particularly influential. I imagine RCT as being a huge breakthrough to the masses, but I have no idea if that's my nostalgia speaking or a statistically significant difference between the impact of that game and something like Planet Coaster.

Interaction Design

• About Face 3 by Alan Cooper
  
• Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge
  
• Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell
  
• Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin
  
• Making Things Talk: (2011) (2007) by Tom Igoe
  
  Interior Design
  
  
• The Decoration of Houses by Edith Wharton and Ogden, Jr. Codman
  
• Domino: The Book of Decorating by Deborah Needleman
  
• Design*Sponge at Home: A Guide to Inspiring Homes by Grace Bonney
  
• The Vintage/Modern Home by Katherine Sorrell
  
• The Fundamentals of Interior Design by Simon Dodsworth
  
  Landscape Architecture
  
  
• Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards by Leonard J. Hopper
  
• Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers
  
• Landscape Graphics by Grant W. Reid
  
• Cities for People by Jan Gehl
  
• Design with Nature by Ian L. McHarg
  
  Lighting Design
  
  
• Stage Lighting Design by Richard Pilbrow
  
• The Architecture of Natural Light by Henry Plummer
  
• Painting With Light by John Alton
  
• Made of Light by Anthony Tischhauser
  
• Color, Environment and Human Response by Frank H. Mahnke & Rudolf H. Mahnke
  
  Product Design
  
  
• Sketching: Drawing Techniques from Product Designers by Koos Eissen
  
• Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek
  
• The Craftsman by Richard Sennett
  
• Mythologies by Roland Barthes
  
• Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
  
  Product Design
  
  
• In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World by John Thackara
  
• The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II & James H. Gilmore
  
• Universal Methods of Design by Bruce Hanington & Bella Martin
  
• Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
  
• Mental Models by Indi Young
  
  Sound Design
  
  
• Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema by David Sonnenschein
  
• Designing Sound by Andy Farnell
  
• Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen by Michel Chion
  
• The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers
  
• Sound Theory Sound Practice by Rick Altman
  
  Urban Design
  
  
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
  * Cities for People by Jan Gehl
  
• A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
  
• The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler
  
• The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch
  
  Web Design
  
  
• Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
  
• HTML & CSS: Design and Build Web Sites by Jon Duckett
  
• The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird
  
• Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS by Ben Frain
  
• Hardboiled Web Design by Andy Clarke
  

I can't be THAT smart, because I can't tell for sure if your comment is sincere or you're being a smart-arse :)

I'm an architect, I know stuff, but can't possibly pretend to know everything in the field- it is vast, so you never stop learning.

There's a lot of good online resources if you just want to look at the subject of architecture/ design. Here are just a few for you to check out if you really are interested:

http://www.dezeen.com/

http://archidose.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.designboom.com/

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.ilikearchitecture.net/

http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/

http://inhabitat.com/

http://fuckyeahbrutalism.tumblr.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_architecture

http://www.architizer.com/blog/history-of-modern-architecture-through-movies/



Also, Some Great Books:

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Architecture-Critical-History-Edition/dp/0500203954

http://www.amazon.com/Towards-New-Architecture-Dover/dp/0486250237/ref=pd_sim_b_7

http://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Learned-Architecture-School/dp/0262062666/ref=pd_sim_b_5

Well, there could be a lot of factors determining sub-par mass transit in an urban area. At the most basic level it could be lack of funding. In WA state we dealt with this over ten years ago with Tim Eyman's I-695 which in my area cut mass transit funding 50%. When you have a group of voters who say "fuck it" to funding bus/light rail you're going to have progressively worse service.

Another aspect is urban congestion. If you are running a bus line without dedicated lanes in a dense downtown region (or the center of an auto-centric sprawl city like Atlanta) it's going to back up and cause delayed routes, more gas consumption, and longer rides. Light rail, commuter rail, and BRT can move faster in most locations but require a larger investment (more money per mile of service, which won't happen if voters turn down taxes and bonds for it). Also factor in the continued sprawling out of cities like Phoenix, which requires more money to service fewer riders due to low density.

It's funny now because many cities are opting to re-implement the trolley lines they so quickly tore up in the 40's/50's/60's, albeit at a cost. When you had cities growing organically with an urban core that included housing followed by streetcar neighborhoods, the transportation system was integrated into the environment (you walked in downtown, took a streetcar to home/visit in the peripheral neighborhoods). The streetcars were tracked and had the right of way. When the cities tore the tracks up and placed their buses within the street traffic, which would become more congested than we could have ever imagined, in many cases we see them giving up a dedicated right of way for transit and forcing their vehicles right into the shark tank, so to say.

The post-war boom that fueled auto production/purchase coupled with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 swelled the streets with cars and kicked off the suburban sprawl that still persists today (although the numbers have lowered significantly since the 1990's and took a sharp decline since 2008). A few good books on these subjects include: Suburban Nation, The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways, Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000, and How Cities Work : Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken Here are a few about specific cities with high amounts of sprawl that go into what factors caused this and the problems faced today: The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles and Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City (which I am reading right now and can say so far is a really interesting history of the city).

Look through a broad survey book like Modern Architecture by Curtis. Pick one that you're interested in. Don't pick something because other people like it. Select an architect you like personally and you'll be more motivated to learn about them. It'll be more fun that way for sure.

Well, here's one :

The popular book I, Claudius, and the BBC series based on it, posit that Livia, the wife of first Roman "emperor" Augustus, killed off a series of Augustus's friends and closer family members to ensure that her son from a previous marriage, Tiberius, would be the only choice for Augustus's heir.

Of course there is no evidence for any such conspiracy. The only evidence for it at all, at least that I'm aware of, is in the form of "motive." And that is, the Southern Frieze of the Ara Pacis ("Altar of the Augustan Peace") depicts Augustus's friend and trustworthy general, Agrippa, in a prominent place relative to Augustus's family in a religious procession.

Some academics have speculated -- I think Zanker in a book on Augustan art -- that this implied that, at one time, Augustus may have considered Agrippa, the architect of his victory over Antony, his natural successor.

If Livia expected her child to succeed instead, that may have provided motive. But this is scant evidence indeed, however interesting .

Two of my favorites:

The Barefoot Architect- This one is perfect for designing a post collapse home. It can help you pick the most suitable design for your climate, and gives detailed instruction on building without the aid of power tools. I always keep this in my BOB.

Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World- I love this one because it deals with the little things you need. How to for composting toilets, soaps, and all the personal hygiene products you'll ever need.

I hope these help!

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/roller-coasters-robert-coker/1111795744#

this one has pretty much every roller coaster thats popular back in 2006. the photos are amazingly good and the quality of writing is top notch.

good luck finding a copy though.

https://www.amazon.com/Roller-Coasters-Seekers-Ultimate-Machines/dp/1402713339?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

I go to a Beaux-Arts-based program, and this by far is the most beautiful book we've used (it was required in our studio). It's only watercolor renderings of Rome, but every page is absolutely gorgeous. Hope this helps!

http://www.amazon.com/Ruins-Ancient-Rome-Architects-1786-1924/dp/089236680X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1321309335&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1320103677&sr=8-3

http://www.amazon.com/Interaction-Color-Expanded-Josef-Albers/dp/0300115954/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320104020&sr=8-1


http://www.amazon.com/Power-Center-Composition-Visual-Anniversary/dp/0520261267/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320103713&sr=8-1 (this one can be a bit esoteric but if you stick with it, its good)

There are also roughly 6 elements to keep in mind when making compositions and you will have to read more about them and seek out examples. they vary depending on where you look but this has some: http://www.wiu.edu/art/courses/handouts/princdesign.html

This also has some good material: http://photoinf.com/General/Robert_Berdan/Composition_and_the_Elements_of_Visual_Design.htm

None of those links are perfect, and they are not quite the way I learned it either, but you should just do exercises to work on them. For example, In a 5x5 square, do compositions using just 10 dots of the same size. Make each composition represent a word such as unity, variety, movement, stillness, and others like that. Thats just a quick example.

Equating quality and realism is actually quite problematic. Modern works of art normally don't stand out by how lifelike they are either. But that doesn't mean that there has been a dramatic decline in artstic quality since the 19th century.

In fact I would say roughly the same amount of skill went into producing the portrait of Augustus and of Constantine. Realism on the other hand isn't really the right word to describe any one of those two. The statue of Augustus is highly idealized and more influenced by standards of beauty inherited from classical Greece than by the emperor's actual appearance. Portraits of the man looking like this were still produced when he was more than sixty years old after all. By imitating the style of the Classical period the artist could showcase the emperor's conservative values, his decorum and his auctoritas.^1
Now Constantine is shown to be a larger than life figure with an unblinking gaze fixed on the horizon. The emperors of Late Antiquity were portrayed as charismatic rulers that were totally different from any mortal man.

On the hole it is true that Late Antique art often rejected the aesthetics that had been established in earlier ages and by doing so could get quite abstract or even comical at times. Even so those older aesthetics were not totally forgotten. The same goes for medieval art. Only with the beginning of the Renaissance Classical Greek art was again seen as the single gold standard to imitate.

Why it came to such a dramatic stylistic change is not easy to answer. Late Antiquity was in many ways a time of cultural upheaval. Rome ceased to be the centre of the empire and its old elites had to contend with new men coming from the provinces. Christianity was on the rise. After centuries maybe now Roman artists were ready to try something radically new.

1. Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus(1990)

I highly suggest purchasing resource books on urban design, urban planning, and city structure. I will list some for you. I like to keep the aid of resource books in my personal library collection, and I am finding that urban planning resource books are helping me greatly in my world-building process.

I highly suggest looking into the life work of urban planner and MIT lecturer Kevin A. Lynch. He studied how urban environments are heavily shaped and influenced by fundamental human values and perceptions. Cities reflected directly those whom lived within them according to Lynch.

Here is a list of books as well as a link to their Amazon page:

• Good City Form by Kevin A. Lynch link here
  
  
• The Image of the City by Kevin A. Lynch link here
  
  
• The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects by Lewis Mumford link here
  
  
• Design of Cities: Revised Edition by Edmund N. Bacon link here
  
  
• The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History by Spiro Kostof link here
  
  Provided on each page is a wide variety of other resource books depending on the time period you are aiming on world-building around. I hope this helped.

Probably not what you're looking for, but if you're interested in the shape and design of CITIES specifically, I recommend Spiro Kostof's "The City Shaped". Really good primer on the evolution of city forms and why they're built the way they are. Should be more informative than just looking at pictures. <=)

Where are you? Kuwait?

Google something like : "vernacular architecture kuwait" and start reading stuff like this: http://nimbusvault.net/publications/koala/SEBRA/papers/mgf13s-015.pdf

Maybe get this book: https://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Architect-Johan-van-Lengen/dp/0936070420 it has a lot of info on design for desert environments in a simple format with lots of art.

Is there an old part of your city? Go there and look at how things are built.

I would start searching for terms like 'desert architecture' 'riads' 'natural cooling' as well as the traditional architecture of different desert countries or areas, persia, iran, KSA and so on and on.

Someone got permission to be creative. Nice spot!

A lot of the principles in play in that tower also apply to the Eiffel Tower (it was also designed to be a communications structure). The Tower and the Bridge is a pretty accessible introduction to those principles.

> What about the people who collaborated with Iraq during the occupation?

Meh. It's an invasion and occupation. Nothing stands out.

>Who?

People who are brown on the outside, but white on the inside. Folks who have been intellectually colonized.

>Cheese puffs?

Yes.

>Sure, that too.

Well if you want to read about Kuwait's urban history then I suggest this book.

Good eye! I actually also have this translated version, so the big Folio is for drooling over the pretty pictures. It is really beautiful.

For concrete, Paulay and Priestley Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete Buildings (I also think it does a bit of CMU). Paulay I think did a book before this one on more general concrete design (maybe with Park).

Link

This book is the basis for seismic design of concrete... and even if you don't do seismic design generally, it really helps with understanding the behavior of the material.

For steel I always end up using the AISC design guides.

Not really a technical guide, but the book The Tower and The Bridge I thought was brilliant when I read it a few years ago. It touches on the art of structural design.

I think a subscription to some of the top engineering magazines is pretty key to keep up on things as well (although I've been bad about keeping up with them myself). The technical gurus in my office though are always reading them.

Aside from the fact that I wonder how you can be a city planner without already having a reasonable knowledge of architecture.

Most useful will be things like

The city Assembled - http://www.amazon.co.uk/City-Assembled-Elements-Through-History/dp/0500281726/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450647413&sr=1-1&keywords=the+city+assembled

Lessons for students in Architecture - hertzberger http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lessons-Students-Architecture-Herman-Hertzberger/dp/9064505624

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Architecture-Critical-History-Edition/dp/0500203954

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714833568/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687582&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0500203954&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0Z665JV5G6RXW4Z3TFF4

https://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/books/art-architecture-photography/sir-banister-fletchers-a-history-of-architecture-hd_100580874?pscid=ps_ggl_shopping&gclid=CODhn7ux68kCFVCZGwodLqgEDw&dclid=CNrar7ux68kCFYJBGQod0rkIJg

perhaps a bunch of documentaries
http://www.archdaily.com/467225/40-architecture-documentaries-to-watch-in-2014


I enjoy Jonathan Meads ones
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vrphc
they are a bit quirky though

There's a huge body of architecture to understand. I would highly suggest to start by reading this book by Jackie Gargus as an introduction to architectural history. Some other fantastic books are:

​

Complexity and Contradiction by Robert Venturi

Towards a new Architecture by Le Corbusier

Modern Architecture: A Critical History by Kenneth Frampton

Space, Time and Architecture by Sigfried Gideon

The Dynamics of Architectural Form by Rudolf Arnheim

​

For more contemporary readings on architecture I would suggest

Red is not a Color by Bernard Tschumi

S, M, L, XL by Rem Koolhaas

​

All of these will lead you to hundreds of more specific papers and discussions surrounding architecture.

my ability to explain it is subpar to all the places i've read about it. if you wish to read about it, the books i'd point you to would be The Giza Powerplant, http://www.amazon.com/The-Giza-Power-Plant-Technologies/dp/1879181509 & Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt: Advanced Engineering http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Technologies-Ancient-Egypt-Engineering/dp/1591431026/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

if you google a bit, you can find the epub/pdf/mobi versions of these books easily enough, and read them to make your own oppinion. But once you read these books, be prepared to roll your eyes each time some 'fact' about egypt is brought up. Its infuriating. And quite amazing to believe this tech existed.

I've had this book by Robert Coker for ages. I like it - it's pretty big with some nice pictures, and goes through the evolution of coasters from Russian Ice Slides to classic woodies to gigacoasters.

If you want to know more great spot like this, I suggest Forgotten New-York. There's also a group that do tour

Good books to read about the origins of Suburban Sprawl...

• Crabgrass Frontier
  
  
• Building Suburbia
  
  Both give a good history of the forces behind the development of the American suburb.

Forgotten New York: Views of a Lost Metropolis is a really interesting book. The author's website is awesome too. He basically just goes exploring different parts of the city and talks about their history. In his book and on the site he talks about places in all the boroughs, not just Manhattan.

Thanks, /u/kiwimac! My list looks like this:

The Classical Language of Architecture, by John Summerson,
An Outline of European Architecture, by Nikolaus Pevsner, and
The Story of Western Architecture by Bill Risebero.

http://www.amazon.com/Giza-Power-Plant-Technologies-Ancient/dp/1879181509/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263221854&sr=8-1

I know it seems impossible, but all of the "mysteries" of the Great Pyramid disappear once you start looking at it as a machine rather than some elaborate tomb (that nobody was ever intentionally buried in).

That's what I thought of too. Here's one that looks cool: https://www.amazon.com/Bestiary-English-Version-Bodleian-Library/dp/085115753X/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=085115753X&pd_rd_r=J0MP3HV5CG4PX17ETPRX&pd_rd_w=3FdIL&pd_rd_wg=cNRnK&psc=1&refRID=J0MP3HV5CG4PX17ETPRX&dpID=51K2DkiIjFL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail and you can find more by searching bestiary at your favorite bookseller.

Books,

I have this coffee table book How to Read Churches that is very rudimentary, but also informative.

How to Build a Cathedral is a lot more detailed but also a lot longer.

Kenneth Frampton is one of my personal favorites in terms of modern architectural history.

I would suggest starting out with a book that says a little about a lot, rather than an in-depth book about a particular style or period.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Center-Composition-Visual/dp/0520261267

and http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Composition-Techniques-Principles-Dramatically/dp/1581809247

While the latter is explicitly a painting instructional book IME that actually improves photography students' ability to see the forest and not just the trees.

If you want some starter/introductory texts on medieval manuscript illumination:

Raymond Clemons/Timothy Graham: Introduction to Manuscript Studies

Christopher de Hamel: A History of Illuminated Manuscripts

JJG Alexander: Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work

If you're interested in late 15th/early 16th centurymanuscript research (around the date for the Wallerstein Codex), I can send you additional titles (my area of specialty is late 15th/early 16th century Flemish MS illumination)

Have you ever read anything by Christopher Dunn? If not you should try The Giza Power Plant at least. If you liked "The Pyramid Code" you would probably find this quite the read!

add this to your holiday wish list. its a great book called "deep history and the brain". it pulls from the study of history, biology, and neuroscience, but the dude is a compelling writer, so you won't feel swamped by fact after fact. its actually a bit of an assault on the practice of history. traditionally, historians only start with written language, and leave pre-literate civilization to anthropology or archeology. he wants to challenge that (first part of the book) and then tie that into modern history (second part of the book) by showing that instead of focusing on the written word for creating a historical narrative, we can start with biology and the brain to construct one that goes much deeper (i.e. "deep history") and therefore can be more illuminating in ways a traditional account of historical unfolding cannot.

so you've got your science/STEM in there, and your history. I think you'd dig it.

On Deep History and the Brain was quite simply mind-expanding. Harvard history professor Daniel Lord Smail's topic is freeing history from the traditional Judeo-Christian time frame and fully integrating it with recent work in things like the neurosciences or evolutionary theory, thus abandoning once and for all the idea of "prehistory".

As an example, the author posits that the usage of caffeine in Europe beginning in the 1600's effected a kind of massively parallel change in brain chemistries, altering the track of history. Check it out! This is history of the most cutting-edge variety.

you can also go with Barefoot Architect, it's incredibly useful to figure out how houses are built depending on climate and available local resources.

https://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Architect-Johan-van-Lengen/dp/0936070420

This is a very good start.

Funnily enough I just read an entry about this in this book "Bestiary" - a translation of a medieval book about animals. They also used this to make it seem more plausible that the first human (Adam) was made out of clay- after all, if geese could grow on trees, then why couldn't humans be created out of clay?

its $60 online brand new

lower ur price lmao

Sort of in the same vein, if you are interested in this sort of thing... I bought Forgotten New York about a year ago and it has remained one of my favorite coffee table books to this day. You will learn an insane amount of New York's history. amazon

I had a book named The City Shaped that talked about this. A link to it on Amazon here

kenneth frampton modern architecture

https://www.amazon.com/City-Shaped-Patterns-Meanings-Through/dp/0821220160

I would suggest this Modern Architecture: A Critical History by Kenneth Frampton

>I "keep making large claims" ?

Well, two large claims: that ancient cultures had technology at their disposal far beyond what we imagine, and that some Egyptian obelisks have markings that could only be created with laser precision. These aren't statements that should be tossed around haphazardly without honest investigation.

EDIT: Sorry! I hadn't realized this is the first time you posted! You made one large claim, not two.

>http://www.gizapower.com/Advanced/Advanced%20Machining.html

Your link is from Christopher Dunn's official website. He is a machinist, craftsman, and author, most notable for his book The Giza Power Plant, where he claims that no tools or knowledge existed that would account for the precision of the stonework, and that the pyramids harnessed earth energy using vibrations and sounds.

Christopher Dunn agreed to a debate with Margaret Morris 12 years ago, but unfortunately, he never showed. His theories have been openly challenged (here's a podcast and an article to start), and no engineers, archaeologists, or ancient historians have stepped up to support his claims.

These are the reasons why I can't accept your link as evidence that the pyramids were built by unknown technology and knowledge. The observations of one author, with a background in machinery and craftsmanship, is not enough to prove that extraterrestrials exist. It only proves what he believes about the architecture that he has observed.