The Poetry of Architecture

by John Ruskin

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Architecture, Poetry, Nonfiction, Design

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

John Ruskin was an English writer, philosopher, art historian, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.
Ruskin was heavily engaged by the work of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc which he taught to all his pupils including William Morris, notably Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionary, which he considered as "the only book of any value on architecture". Ruskin's writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He wrote essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, architectural structures and ornamentation. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art gave way in time to plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society.
Ruskin was hugely influential in the latter half of the 19th century and up to the First World War. After a period of relative decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability and craft.
Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in defence of the work of J.M.W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature". From the 1850s, he championed the Pre-Raphaelites, who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues. Unto This Last (1860, 1862) marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing. In 1871, he began his monthly "letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain", published under the title Fors Clavigera (1871–1884). In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society. As a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today.

Reviews

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely an architecture nerd kind of read, but fitting with the title of his work Ruskin expresses his thoughts on architecture very poetically and beautifully. The focus of the writing is to compare and contrast the land, culture, and architecture of several countries in 19th Century Europe. In this way it could also be an interesting read for its social science as a primary text from the era.

Ruskin’s concept of architecture is very traditional, but one can see how it began to move architects like Frank Lloyd Wright into modern architectural design. Ruskin rejects the Vitruvian focus on proportion and rules and instead looks at architecture like poetry that artistically reflects the context that birthed it. He consistently argues that in order for a building to be beautiful is must connect to climate, country, and people.

Ruskin’s analysis of cottages and villas in different European countries is insightful and beautifully written, but also cannot be removed from his prejudice and national pride. Ruskin celebrates the neat tidiness of sweet home Britain as a reflection of a strong economy and an industrious population, and revels in the aged beauty of Italy that has resulted from a poor economy and a sloth filled population reflecting the glory of ages passed. Still, some of his thoughts on architecture have stuck like glue thanks to their beauty and insight. For example, French cottages “Constitute a kind of beauty from which the ideas of age and decay are inseparable”, for “whenever beautiful loses its melancholy it degenerates into prettiness”

[Duckpondwithoutducks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This architectural book is more John Ruskin's personal opinions on what constitutes beautiful architecture, then a description of various architectural styles. I read the kindle version, but unfortunately, it does not have any of the pictures and suffers because of it. I did enjoy Ruskin's rant on the need for windows in the breakfast room, and nowhere else:

"it is pleasant enough to have a pretty little bit visible from the bedrooms; but after all, it only makes gentlemen cut themselves in shaving ... dinner is always uncomfortable by daylight ... in the library, people should have something else to do, than looking out of the windows ... but the breakfast room, where we meet the first light of the dewy day, the first breath of the morning air, the first glance of gentle eyes; to which we descend in the very spring and elasticity of mental renovation and bodily energy, in the gathering up of our spirit for the new day, in the flush of our awakening from the darkness and the mystery of faint and inactive dreaming, in the resurrection from our daily grave, in the first tremulous sensation of the beauty of our being, in the most glorious perception of the lightning of our life; there indeed, our expatiation of spirit, when it meets the pulse of outward sound and joy, the voice of bird and breeze and billow, does demand some power of liberty, some space for its going forth into the morning, some freedom of intercourse with the lovely and limitless energy of creature and creation."

Whoa!

[Vivian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not Ruskin's ordinary work where he states his opinion; in fact, he looks into architectural trends that already exist to see "what is" rather than his usual "what ought to be." It's still great, but this is probably not the one if you're looking for more of Ruskin's opinionated works.

[Kezscribe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really about a poetical view of architecture. It is not very technical, it's most Ruskin's opinion on architecture subjects, but still a wonderful and interesting book.

As an architecture student, this was a very inspiring reading for me!