Main entry:
Glancey, Jonathan, author.
Title & Author:
What's so great about the Eiffel Tower? : 70 questions that will change the way you think about architecture / Jonathan Glancey.
Publication:
London : Laurence King Publishing, 2017.
©2017
Description:
176 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 21 cm
Notes:
Includes index.
Machine generated contents note: Parthenon: Cold formalism or classical exuberance? -- Venice: Architectural museum or living city? -- Mies van der Rohe: Less is more or less is a bore? -- St Paul's Cathedral: Baroque masterpiece or Renaissance sham? -- Great Pyramid of Giza: Overscaled royal tomb, or sublime gateway to the cosmos? -- Stonehenge: International symbol or isolated monument? -- Chartres Cathedral: Labyrinth of sacred geometry or maze of ineffable kitsch? -- Manhattan Skyline: Ancient or modern? -- Sagrada Familia: Genius or gimcrackery? -- Volkshalle by Albert Speer: A new Pantheon or set design for Gotterdammerung? -- Eiffel Tower: Engineering masterpiece or aesthetic blunder? -- Casa del Fascio/Casa del Popolo: Classical or Modern? Totalitarian or democratic? -- Guggenheim Bilbao: Iconic folly or inspired urban sculpture? -- Bauhaus, Dessau: Vision of a Modern paradise or functionalist purgatory?
Note continued: Chapel of the Holy Shroud, Turin: Religious or architectural miracle? -- Deconstructivism: Architecture meets philosophy or fashion? -- Palacio de Alvorada, Brasilia: Bauhaus in Brazil, or Brazil into Bauhaus? -- Crystal Palace: One-year wonder or one of history's most influential buildings? -- Centre Pompidou, Paris: Oil refinery or refined public gallery? -- Saynatsalo Town Hall, Finland: Convincing new vernacular or precursor of vernacular kitsch? -- Carcassonne: Medieval Europe revisited, or the seeds of Disneyland sown? -- Russian Revolutionary Architecture: A revolution for communism or capitalism? -- Mud: Glorious, or primitive building material? -- Shreve, Lamb and Harmon: Can you design one of the world's most famous buildings and be forgotten? -- Stansted Airport: Ideal air terminal or banal shopping mall? -- Taj Mahal: Great architecture or greater story? -- San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane: Madness or masterpiece?
Note continued: Bibliotheque du Roi, Paris: Absolutist fantasy, or poetry from the French Enlightenment? -- Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris: Folly on the Seine, or sane new national library? -- Le Corbusier: Hero or villain? -- City of London Skyline: Nightmare, or happy reflection of the world of high finance? -- Villa Capra: Italian home or Renaissance idea? -- De architectura: A philosophy of architecture or DIY manual? -- Thomas Jefferson: Ancient Roman or modern American political values? -- Altes Museum: Symbol of the Prussian Enlightenment, or foundation stone for Miesian Modernism? -- Les Espaces d'Abraxas, Marne-la-Vallee: Versailles for the people, or Postmodern Parisian ghetto? -- Dymaxion House: A Model T Ford house or an eccentric one-off design? -- National Assembly Building, Dhaka: Self-conscious antiquity or timeless design? -- Sinan the Magnificent: Brilliant bureaucrat or great architect? -- John Portman: Futurist architect or real estate developer?
Note continued: Temples of Khajuraho, India: Religious experience or erotic playground? -- Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral: Sixties period piece or canonic place of worship? -- TWA Flight Center, New York: Future or past of commercial flight? -- John Pawson: Slight minimalist or quiet visionary? -- Postmodernism: Modernism redeemed or duped? -- Fallingwater: Keepsake or liability? -- Thermal Baths, Vals: Building into landscape or landscape into building? -- Metabolism: Japanese fashion statement or truly radical design? -- Eladio Dieste: Too much with too little or great architecture on a shoestring? -- Zaha Hadid: Considerable or wayward talent? -- St Petersburg: Neoclassical Arcadia or Tsarist Hades? -- High Tech: Boy's Own adventure or revolutionary style for our times? -- Brutalism: Grim or lovable concrete? -- The Car: Liberator of citizens or conqueror of cities? -- Parametric Design: Computer-game fad or a lasting new future for architecture?
Note continued: Victorian Gothic: Nineteenth-century romance or vulgar blight? -- Sydney Opera House: Symbol of altruism or pettiness? -- Shaker Style: Design for life or death? -- Outrage: Valiant or pointless campaign? -- Albert Kahn: American hero or Soviet stooge? -- Adolf Loos: Hovering on genius or insanity? -- Philip Johnson: An architect for every occasion or New York hooker? -- Arts and Crafts: Noble rusticity, or Morris dancing for architects? -- Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Great Scot or tourist attraction? -- Architecture and Morality: Imperative or opportunism? -- Art Nouveau: Innovative artistry or frivolous conceit? -- Concrete: Grim utility or rock bed of invention? -- United States Airforce Academy Chapel, Colorado Springs: Homage to God or to military? -- Eco-towns: Green credentials, or greenwash? -- Dunmore Pineapple, Scotland: Costly self-indulgence, or investment in architectural delight?
Summary:
Why do we find the idea of a multi-coloured Parthenon so shocking today? Why was the Eiffel Tower such a target for hatred when it was first built? Is the Sagrada Família a work of genius or kitsch? Why has 'Le Corbusier', one of the greatest of all architects, been treated as a villain? This book examines the critical legacy of both well known and either forgotten or underappreciated highpoints in the history of world architecture.
ISBN:
178067919X (paperback)
9781780679198 (paperback)
Subject:
Architecture History.
Architecture Histoire.
Architecture.
History.
Holdings:
Location: Library main 294432
Call No.: BIB 239981
Status: Available
