Analysing Architecture 4th Edition Simon Unwin

Routledge
Published January 6, 2014
Textbook - 336 Pages - 816 B/W Illustrations

Summary

Now in its fourth edition, Analysing Architecture has become internationally established as the best introduction to architecture. Aimed primarily at those wishing to become professional architects, it also offers those in disciplines related to architecture (from archaeology to stage design, garden design to installation art), a clear and accessible insight into the workings of this rich and fascinating subject. With copious illustrations from his own notebooks, the author dissects examples from around the world and all periods of history to explain underlying strategies in architectural design and show how drawing may be used as a medium for analysis.

This new edition of Analysing Architecture is revised and expanded. Notably, the chapter on ‘Basic Elements of Architecture’ has been enlarged to discuss the ‘powers’ various architectural elements offer the architect. Three new chapters have been added to the section on ‘Themes in Spatial Organisation’, covering ‘Occupying the In-between’, ‘Inhabited Wall’ and ‘Refuge and Prospect’. Two new examples – a Mud House from Kerala, India and the Mongyo-tei (a tea house) from Kyoto, Japan – have been added to the ‘Case Studies’ at the end of the book. The ‘Select Bibliography’ has been expanded and the ‘Index’ revised.

Works of architecture are instruments for managing, orchestrating, modifying our relationship with the world around us. They frame just about everything we do. Architecture is complex, subtle, frustrating… but ultimately extremely rewarding. It can be a difficult discipline to get to grips with; nothing in school quite prepares anyone for the particular demands of an architecture course. But this book will help.

Analysing Architecture is the foundation volume of a series of books by Simon Unwin exploring the workings of architecture. Other books in the series include Twenty Buildings Every Architect Should Understand and Exercises in Architecture.

Table of Contents

Introduction 

How Analysis Helps Design 

Architecture as Identification of Place 

Basic Elements of Architecture 

Modifying Elements of Architecture 

Elements Doing More Than One Thing 

Using Things That Are There 

Primitive Place Types 

Architecture as Making Frames 

Temples and Cottages 

Geometries of Being 

Ideal Geometry 

Themes in Spatial Organisation:

1. Space and Structure 

2. Parallel Walls 

3. Stratification 

4. Transition, Hierarchy, Heart 

5. Occupying the In-between 

6. Inhabited Wall 

7. Refuge and Prospect  Postscript 2013  Postscript 1997-2009 

Case studies 

1. Iron Age House, Castell Henllys, Wales, UK 

2. Royal Villa, Knossos, Crete, Greece 

3. Llainfadyn, St. Fagans, Wales, UK 

4. Mud House, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India 

5. Il Tempietto, Rome, Italy 

6. Fitzwilliam College Chapel, Cambridge, England, UK 

7. Schminke House, Löbau, Germany 

8. Vanna Venturi House, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, USA 

9. Woodland Chapel, Stockholm, Sweden 

10. House VI, Cornwall, Connecticut, USA 

11. The Box, Culver City, California, USA 

12. Mongyo-Tei (Tea House), Kyoto, Japan 

Acknowledgements 

Select Bibliography and References