Main entry:

Crowe, Norman.

Title & Author:

Nature and the Idea of a Man-Made World : An Investigation Into the Evolutionary Roots of Form and Order in the Built Environment / Norman Crowe.

Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©1995.

Description:

xx, 270 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-254) and indexes.
[Table of Contents] -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. THE IDEA OF A MAN-MADE WORLD -- Search for a Balanced World -- Expressions of an Ideal Relationship with Nature -- Duality of Man and Nature -- Our Shifting Idea of Nature -- Scientific Objectivity and the Humanist's Critique -- Summary and Comments on Method -- 2. GEOMETRY AND THE PRIMACY OF DWELLING -- From a Life in Nature to Living in a Setting Shaped by Man -- Architecture as a Paradigm for Order -- Three Houses in Nature -- Primacy of the House -- Natural Sources for the Geometry of Architecture -- The Nature of Man-made Things -- The Stamp of Custom and Convention -- Summary: Dwelling and the Sources of Order -- 3. NATURE AND THE SENSE OF PLACE -- Place and the Formation of Culture -- Psychological and Social Importance of "Place" -- "Place" as Concrete versus Abstract -- The Pantheon: A Place as a Metaphor for the Cosmos -- Muuratsalo: Settlement and Founding a Place in Nature -- Summary: Nature and the Sense of Place -- 4. UNITY AND THE IDEA OF HARMONY -- The Structure behind the Myth -- Harmony, Idealism, and the Quest for Beauty -- Structural Analysis -- The Quest for Unity -- The Polis and the Idea of a Sustainable City -- Scale and the Problem of Unity -- The Greek Temple and the Tree -- Summary: Unity and the Idea of Harmony -- 5. TIME AND THE EVOLUTION OF THINGS -- Time and Place as Related Qualities of Existence -- The Evolution of Things -- Invention and Discovery -- Evolution and the Nature of Things -- Seeking Meaning in Time -- Imitation and an Evolution for Architecture -- The Orders of Architecture -- The Analogy of Language -- Natural Theories of Architecture -- Summary: Time and the Evolution of Things -- 6. TIMELESSNESS AND THE IDEA OF THE CLASSICAL -- The Idea of the Classical -- Western Classical Architecture: The Rules -- Classical Language of the Sung Dynasty Building Standards -- Sukiya Architecture of Japan -- The Sufi Tradition -- Balancing the Timeless and the Temporal -- Common Law and the Evolution of Custom -- Classical Thought as the Means Rather than the End -- Summary: The Timeless and the Idea of the Classical -- 7. NATURE AND THE CITY -- The Transitory City of the Present -- Is the City Natural? -- The City as a House -- Time, Place, and the World Beyond -- Summary: Nature and the City -- CONCLUSION -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Illustration Sources -- Index.
Current Copyright Fee: GBP15.00 0.

Summary:

"Over the course of this century, nature has increasingly been relegated to the province of environmentalists while cities and towns have been turned over to developers and planners. Norman Crowe seeks to overcome this division into the respective realms of specialists by recognizing the independence of both the natural and the man-made through an understanding of the often hidden roots of the world we contrive for ourselves. Crowe argues that we have lost a vital balance by neglecting our traditional motives for building in the first place. He argues for a symbiotic theory of man's making and nature's activity that views the built environment as a form of nature, one that nourishes the generative power as well as other enduring qualities of nature. In this sweeping view of architecture and urbanism across cultural boundaries, Crowe evaluates the connections between the natural and man-made in our towns and cities, farms and gardens, architecture and works of civil engineering. He draws on the lessons to be learned from the buildings and cities of the past in restoring critical traditional values that have been lost to modernism, which tends to see the built world almost exclusively through the abstractions of post-Enlightenment science. Crowe's starting point is indigenous architecture, the origins of our cities and towns where the first geometries were imposed on nature. He traces our separation from nature over time, from the long period of human history where nature served as a paradigm for creation. In the first chapter he considers the psychological and practical origins for the practice of what amounts to building an "alternative" nature. Crowe then explores the likely historical roots of this world and investigates our intrinsic quest for unity, the ancient idea that we are responsible for maintaining a harmony among ourselves, what we make, and nature. He traces the effect of our responses to the passing of time and the inevitability of change in the built world and then considers its opposite, the quest for timelessness in response to the inevitability of time passing. Crowe concludes by looking at the idea of the city as the culminating expression of al of these characteristic responses to nature that manifest themselves in what we build." -- Dust Jacket.

ISBN:

0262032228
9780262032223
0262531461
9780262531467

Subject:

Architecture Environmental aspects.
Nature Effect of human beings on.
Architecture Aspect de l'environnement.
Êtres humains Influence sur la nature.
Architectuurtheorieën.
Bouwkunst.
Sociologische aspecten.
Architecture Related to Environment

Holdings:

Location: Library main 108335
Call No.: ID NA2542.35.C7; ID:94-B2981
Status: Available