The Lamp of Memory: Ruskin, Tradition and Architecture

by Michael Wheeler

This work concerns the concept of tradition in Ruskin's work on architecture in the 19th century, the implications of his work for architecture today and the issue of tradition in contemporary architecture. His approach to the whole question of why and how we should build is explored. The book reflects an exhibition of the same title and draws in the same way as it does upon the fact that Ruskin's ideas were expressed through drawings, photographs, collections, letters, diary entries, public lectures and private interventions in debates as well as through the more conventional form for expressing seminal ideas, that of books.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[OSA · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough analysis on Ruskin's enigmatic "The Lamp of Memory", one of the lesser-known of his Seven Lamps of Architecture. Even though Ruskin later called his essays on the Seven Lamps a "wretched rant", there is plenty still to be learned from his writings today.