Main entry:

Coleman, Nathaniel, 1961- author.

Title & Author:

Materials and meaning in architecture : essays on the bodily experience of buildings / Nathaniel Coleman.

Publication:

London ; New York : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020.
©2020

Description:

xv, 318 pages, 16 numbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: Reading material. 1. Material as reality preserve: History, theory, design -- 2. John Ruskin (1819-1900_: Stones of architecture -- 3. Loos (1870-1933): Not the material but what is done with it -- Part one: Stones, architecture, land and interiors. 4. Time silted up: Scarpa at the Gipsoteca Canoviano (1955-57) and Museo di Castelvecchio (1957-75) -- 5. Pool and cave: Zumthor's thermal baths at Vals (1996) -- 6. Terminal jewel: Williams and Tsien's Folk Art Museum (2001) -- 7. Tectonic shifts: Miralles's Arts and Crafts Ecstasy at the Scottish parliament (2004) -- Part two: The long view of materials at play -- 8. Human touch: The enduring warmth of wood -- 9. Fire and wind: The appeal of baking bricks -- 10. Wild at heart: Concrete as liquid stone? -- 11. Imaging rationality: The resonance modernity of steel -- 12. Transparency: A darker shade of glass -- 13. Forms of a conclusion.

Summary:

"Interweaving architecture, philosophy and cultural history, Materials and Meaning in Architecture develops a rich and multi-dimensional exploration of materials and materiality, in an age when architectural practice seems otherwise preoccupied with image and visual representation. Arguing that architecture is primarily experienced by the whole body, rather than chiefly with the eyes, this broad-ranging study shows how the most engaging built works are as tactile as they are sensuous, communicating directly with the bodily senses, especially touch. It explores the theme of 'material imagination' and the power of establishing 'place identity' in an architect's work, to consider the enduring expressive possibilities of material use in architecture. The book's chapters can be dipped into, each individual chapter providing close readings of built works by selected modern masters (Scarpa, Zumthor, Williams and Tsien), insights into key texts and theories (Ruskin, Loos, Bachelard), or short cultural histories of materials (wood, brick, concrete, steel, and glass). And yet, taken together, the chapters build to a powerful book-length argument about how meaning accrues to materials through time, and about the need to reinsert the bodily experience of materiality into architectural design. It is thus also, in part, a manifesto: arguing for architecture to act as a bulwark against the tide of an increasingly depersonalised built environment. With insights for a wide range of readers, ranging from students through to researchers and professional designers, Materials and Meaning in Architecture will cause theorists to rethink their assumptions and designers to see new potential for their projects."-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9781474287746 hardcover
1474287743 hardcover
9781474287753 paperback
1474287751 paperback

Subject:

Architecture Human factors.
Building materials.
Construction Materials
Architecture Facteurs humains.
Construction Matériaux.
building materials.
Bouwkunst
Bouwmaterialen

Holdings:

Location: Library main 308092
Call No.: BIB 253536
Status: Available