Architectura: Elements of Architectural Style

This lavishly produced introduction to architectural history and theory leaps nimbly from the mud dwellings of Mohenjo-Daro, Pakistan, to Gaudí’s iconoclasm, from Bentham’s panopticon to Gehry’s titanium curves, revealing how architecture has been exquisitely sensitive and responsive to the evolution of commerce, climate, human needs for spirituality, comfort and security, and technological and military innovations. Organized to parallel the structures of building, the book begins “from the ground up” (foundations, cellars, catacombs) to “putting up walls,” “across the rooftops” and the “art of ornamentation” in a sweep of global and historical techniques. Readers will enjoy fresh analysis of familiar structures (from the pyramids to the Great Wall) and delight in the ragbag of fun trivia (the spire of the Empire State Building was intended as “a mooring mast for zeppelins”) and the enduring mysteries of ancient architecture (e.g., how builders excavated the largest block of stone in the world, now the unfinished obelisk of Aswan. Photographs showcase the world’s architectural treasures (e.g., Lincoln Cathedral, the Mezquita, Chartres) and profiles celebrate such master builders as Hassan Fathy, Kenzo Tange and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. But the paeans to earthly materials—tinder, slate and brick—are this book’s unexpectedly moving highlight. (Nov.)