Main entry:

Plummer, Henry, 1946- author.

Title & Author:

The experience of architecture / Henry Plummer.

Publication:

New York, NY : Thames & Hudson, 2016.

Description:

287 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 26 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 278-281) and index.
Introduction : places of possibililty -- 1. Floors of agility : The docile effect of flat ground ; Vernacular stairs and footpaths ; Gravitational currents ; Acrobatic staircases ; The sprightly Japanese floor ; Vertiginous edges ; Sky cities and residential eyries ; The graceful flight of ramps ; Catwalks : from the Eiffel Tower to Arne Jacobsen's stairways -- 2. Mechanisms of transformation : Interplay and discovering the self ; The red herrings of machine architecture ; Modest sliding screens of Japan ; Simple but rewarding vernacular devices ; Genealogy of modern kineticism ; Mechanical marvels of the Maison de Verre ; The poetic mutations of Carlo Scarpa ; Tom Kundig's 'Gizmos' and Steven Holl's 'Hinged space' -- 3. Spaces of versatility : Ambiguity ; Double-perspective in 20th-century poetry and painting ; The freedom of elbow room ; Composite staircases ; Italian piazzas, both grand and intimate ; Wright's 'Sovereignty of the individual' ; Polyvalent forms of Herman Hertzberger ; Maurice Smith's spatial collages ; Giancarlo de Carlo's participatory architecture ; The binary values of Aldo van Eyck -- 4. Depths of discovery : Secrets of residual space ; Japanese grilles and blinds ; Forest-like ventures ; The mystery of shadows ; Fogged images in translucent walls ; Intricacy and patina ; Tiny immensity ; Spatial elasticity of Sir John Soane ; Enigmatic details of Carlo Scarpa ; The primorial journey ; The compelling glimpse ; Enfilades and receding thresholds -- 5. Fields of action : Painterly images of a pervious world ; Under construction and in ruin ; The field of forces in science and art ; Open-form cities ; Stone forests ; Interlaced webs of iron and glass ; Interfolding space from Wright to Kappe ; Construction of holes ; Three-dimensional habitable fields of Maurice Smith ; The Japanese spatial lattice.

Summary:

How does the experience of turning a door handle, opening a door from one space to lead into another, affect us? This book aims to understand how these everyday acts are influenced by architectural form, a concept that is vital for all architects to grasp if our buildings are to be anything more than a commercial or aesthetic enterprise. It considers how specific built elements and volumes can sustain or deny our powers of decision. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of our daily interactions with architecture, looking at stairs, floors and paths, moving interior spaces, perception and perspective, transparency and the relationship between a building and its setting. This book is not just for architects and designers engaged in the production of space, but for all those who seek a richer understanding of their place in the built world.

ISBN:

9780500343210
0500343217

Subject:

Architecture Human factors.
Architecture Psychological aspects.
Architecture Details.
Architecture Facteurs humains.
Architecture Aspect psychologique.
Architecture Détails.
Architecture and Planning.
Architekturtheorie

Holdings:

Location: Library main 293877
Call No.: BIB 239121
Status: Available