Twenty Buildings Every Architect Should Understand: a revised and expanded edition of Twenty Buildings Every Architect Should Understand

by Simon Unwin

Have you ever wondered how the ideas behind the world’s greatest architectural designs came about? What process does an architect go through to design buildings which become world-renowned for their excellence? This book reveals the secrets behind these buildings. He asks you to ‘read’ the building and understand its starting point by analyzing its final form. Through the gradual revelations made by an understanding of the thinking behind the form, you learn a unique methodology which can be used every time you look at any building.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Design

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 17, 2014

About the author

Simon Unwin is a freelance writer and lecturer based in Cardiff, UK. He is a registered architect but concentrates on writing about architecture and teaching architectural analysis and design. His publications include six books: Analysing Architecture (Routledge, London, 1997, 2003, 2009 and 2014); An Architecture Notebook: Wall (Routledge, 2000); Doorway (Routledge, 2007); Twenty-Five Buildings Every Architect Should Understand (Routledge, 2010 and 2015); Exercises in Architecture (Routledge, 2012); and The Ten Most Influential Buildings in History: Architecture's Archetypes (Routledge, 2016). These books are used in schools of architecture around the world. Analysing Architecture has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. Recently, Unwin has instigated a series of Analysing Architecture Notebooks, which currently include Metaphor (Routledge, 2019), Children as Place-Makers (Routledge, 2019), Curve (Routledge, 2019) and Shadow (Routledge, 2020).

Simon Unwin is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of Dundee, Scotland, where he was Professor from 2004 to 2009. Previously he was Senior Lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff University, Wales. He has lived in Australia as well as the UK and taught or lectured in Israel, the USA, China, Malaysia, India, Sweden, Turkey and at other schools of architecture in the UK and Europe.

Contact: info@simonunwin.com

Reviews

[Cédric C · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I can highly recommend to everybody!

Architecture guides you through life everyday. The ways you walk along, it allows or blocks your views, it organises the way you live, makes you experience qualities of space. Simon Unwin achieves to bring an understandig to the tools an architect uses to design.
This book does give an overview over architecural ideas, from basic elements to the way of defining space, and it also relates to society and the different philosohical questions/views of life.

-Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space- Mies van der Rohe

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading more about Mies. I didn't know that the Barcelona Pavillion related to a nearby classical building or that Mies allowed its columns to slip off of the grid when necessary. Also really enjoyed the Eileen Gray E-1027 house and it's relationship with Corb's Cabanon.

[Pía López Copetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book that every architecture student should read. It gives an insight into Modern and mid-90s architecture with in-depth analysis.

[Tim Garry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most clear, concise and informative architectural analysis I have come across, superbly written and supplemented with brilliant drawings which convey the design philosophy perfectly.

[Tin Vukušić · Rating 5 out of 5]

What the title says

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

too few

[Howard Mansfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unwin analyzes a handful of mostly modern houses by unbuilding and then rebuilding them. He takes them apart and reassembles them to understand each element – walls, windows, doors, stairs, floors, roofs, the site, and the materials. Unwin believes that the best way to understand a building is to draw it. His drawings serve well here. He’s a good tour guide

[Bayan Allou · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't find it as interesting and helpful as I hoped.