The Story of Buildings

by Patrick Dillon, Stephen Biesty (Illustrator)

A highly readable book about architecture, lavishly illustrated with sixteen intricate cross sections. From straw huts to skyscrapers, palaces to arts centres, The Story of Buildings takes us on a journey across continents and over centuries. Patrick Dillon selects sixteen of the most iconic buildings from around the world including the Parthenon, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Taj Mahal, the Forbidden City, the Bauhaus, Crystal Palace, the Sydney Opera House and the Pompidou Centre, and tells the remarkable human story behind each of them. Stephen Biesty's detailed, intricate cross-sections allow us to see inside these incredible structures and appreciate the inspiration of their creators. Technical information and architectural terms are explained in labels and flaps and there is an extensive index and timeline at the end of the book.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, History, Art, Childrens, Middle Grade, Science

96 pages, Hardcover

First published September 9, 2018

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Patrick Dillon lives in Kennington, where he runs a successful architectural practice. His first novel Truth was followed by Lies published by Michael Joseph.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

What started as a preview for a student became one of my favorite finds this year. The book is now being foisted on the immediate family, as it is a feast for the eyes and mind. It is so much more than The Story Of Buildings - it is the story of us as creators and how we have shaped our world through buildings and progress.The illustrations are amazing and the story is phenomenal. The best broad brush of history ever; it could and should be the arc for all world history classes. LOVED IT! All libraries should own!

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers a look into the architectural designs, innovations, and inspiration for various edifices around the world. The narrative is long, and I would recommend reading this book slowly, taking enough time to appreciate both the amazing constructions and the illustrations that depict them.

The large size of the book along with the pull out pages are wonderful for allowing the reader to really see some of the more intricate details. The illustrations are primarily in sepia tones, but additional colors are used for contrasts and to highlight some details.

Overall, this is a fantastic book and would likely appeal to middle grade readers and older, especially those who are fascinated by design and architecture. An index and timeline of architecture throughout the ages rounds out this very detailed book.

I was a bit frustrated at how long it took me to finish this book. I had to return it to the library and checked it out again. I had been reading about one building at any given time, but pushed through to finish the book. Not a problem with the book, but with my prioritizing other books over this one.

interesting quotes:

"He was the most powerful man in the world, but one day he would die just like the poorest beggar. He had defeated all his enemies, but he could never conquer time." (p. 16)

"That was what made Athens special, he thought, Athenians had used their wealth not to build tombs or palaces for kings but on better things: on thinking, talking, wondering. It wasn't for nothing that the city was named after the goddess of wisdom." (p. 23)

[Margie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though meant for children this beautifully illustrated book appeals to all ages. Architectural styles reflect history and culture as well as art; all are touched on in this concise and elegant book. It is a feast for the eyes as well as the mind and cannot be rushed through and is best read and savored slowly. The illustrations are very detailed and masterful.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The contents of this book live up exactly to the title and provided an excellent start to my year's exploration on cool stuff people built. Dillon thoroughly but accessibly tells the story of humanity through the buildings they have created in history. It is fascinating how mankind seems to innovate the technology needed to create the type of building they envision. The styles and achievements of different ages each contribute to the history, values, and functions of the buildings created and the people who built them.

Buildings from the pyramids to skyscrapers are addressed, described, and illustrated beautifully to see how they came together. The stories, the people, the materials, the goals--they all combine to create a unique perspective on history.

If you enjoy history (told broadly, so that you can see how eras connect), architecture, or art, you will find this book interesting. It looks like this book is targeted toward a junior high/high school level, but it is not juvenile, just accessible.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This is a fantastic book. I loved the illustrations, and the information was exactly perfect for 4th grade and up to learn about the fascinating history of buildings. The book stars in pre-history, then moves through to Egypt and all the way to 2001. The cross sections are beautiful and meticulous, labeled clearly and so much fun to look at. I learned a whole lot and added several buildings to the list of things I want to to see someday when we're all allowed to go travel again. I highly recommend this one.

[Shelby Lehman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I checked this out of the library because I dig architecture. My kids loved it and we ended up reading it as a bedtime story. Wonderful overview with amazing illustrations. A great way to cover history through architecture.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

library copy

[Christina Pilkington · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5 stars

A gorgeously-illustrated hardcover book about the history of architecture from the beginning of history through present day. I was amazed at how much I learned while reading this book! Dillon does an excellent job of showing just how the ideas of architecture progressed throughout the ages, how ideas expanded and built on each other, and highlighted some of the most important architects of the ages.

Highly recommended.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. It had beautiful, detailed pictures and was very well-written. I read the whole thing in a day.

[jedioffsidetrap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written for general/younger audience but wonderful drawings & history I didn’t know.

[Akemi G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful well-detailed illustrations accompanied with good stories. However, it suffers from the same weakness many English-written history books have: it's Europe-centered and, even worse, the part about Asia has some errors, some quite serious.

For instance, on page 38-39, it discusses Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Palengue, Mexico, Islamic mosques, Kinkaku-ji, Japan, and the Forbidden City, China, all thrown in together, and regarding the Forbidden City, it says, "He built a whole city." Well, it was not a city--there was a whole lot of larger city outside of it. The Chinese character 城 can mean both castle/palace and city, and apparently, this has caused some confusion. (It also does acknowledge it is built in Beijing.)

It's also inappropriate to describe Kinkaku-ji (might be better known as the Golden Pavilion by Mishima's novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion), lined with gold panels, plain.

Still a great read that would open up the mind to history and/or architecture.

P.S. Rather than Kinkaku-ji, I would pick a tea house to showcase the Japanese way of harmony with nature. It's hard to decide which tea house would be the best example, but this wiki entry has a typical floor plan. You can see how small it is--it only sits a few people. It also has a photo of the guest entrance, which is so small that you have to humbly crawl in, and if you were a samurai, you'd have to take off your sword. (Yes, tea ceremony was a no-weapon occasion, and even though it was possible to hide weapon in your clothes, everyone honored the rule.) The thatched roof and plain plaster walls also show the appreciation of humility. It's the perfect antithesis to the western history of buildings that aimed to be bigger and taller.

A few other buildings that I think would have been great to be included:
* The Great Wall of China, the only man-made architecture visible from space
* The pagoda of Horyu-ji, the world's oldest wooden architecture, built in early 600s. Considering that the land is one of the most active epicenters around the Pacific Ocean, it's a wonder that the 122 feet tower still stands tall. I'm no architect, but I heard the central column is actually set in a way that allows shaking. So the tower shakes when an earthquake hits, but because it shakes with the ground, it doesn't collapse. An antithesis to the idea that stronger means more fixed.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Story of Buildings is a gorgeous hardcover book that measures approximately 12" x 10". Picking it up for the first time, it looked a bit like a coffee table book for kids, which I guess it could be used as such. The book begins with a chapter on building a house. The author, Patrick Dillon, describes how people used to live in caves because it was the most logical shelter choice available, but eventually developed tools and learned how to make homes. According to him, this is the story of buildings. He then goes on to show how dwelling places have changed both over the years and depending on where one lived. After this other types of structures came into being, like barns, factories, places of worship, etc. He stresses that "Every building has a story to tell." We then dive into the heart of the book.

The remaining chapters focus on a particular building, starting with the Pyramid of Djoser and ending with the Straw Bale House in London, England. Each chapter tells background information on the place the building is located, the culture/people, and the building itself. A large foldout 2 page illustration is then provided to show finer details of the building itself. The book has a nice flow to it, because it's like reading a linear evolution of buildings. He starts with Egypt, moves to Greece, then Rome, etc. and manages to paint a beautiful picture with words to accompany the many beautiful illustrations by Stephen Biesty. This is a great book for children and adults alike and reminds me of David Macaulay's books. This is a great book for getting kids interested in architecture and engineering.

[Emily Andrus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A seriously fantastic factual book for kids. On one hand, I think the (extremely!) detailed illustrations, fold out pages, informational tidbits, and timeline layout were really nice. Plus, I already seriously enjoy architecture. On the other hand--in a critical, adult sort of way--I wonder why they chose to focus on the buildings they did. And why they put in such a blatant, random plug at the end for energy efficient building. Overall, the first hand wins and I think this is a fantastic book.

[Martina_H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Výběr zajímavých slavných budov od historie po (skoro) dnešek.
Zajímavý čtivý popis včetně nástinu historického pozadí (velmi zjednodušeného) a
f a n t a s t i c k á názorná kresba celé stavby včetně pohledů dovnitř. Některé stránky jsou rozkládací, např. mrakodrap je vysoký na strany skoro 4 a ne jen dvě.

Takové malé poutavé nahlédnutí na dějiny staveb.
Kniha má schopnost čtenáře nadchnout pro architekturu.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative STEM book--with serious oversights. Recommend as a gift for architecture-interested youth, but ONLY provided an adult is prepared to bring in discussion of sanitized history and systems of oppression.

An ideal book for a kid interested in architecture....except it's 2020, and there's no excuse for publishing a book of this sort (historical) without at least laying the ground work to talk about systems of power or gender or erasing people of color. I'm assuming that this book is meant to cater to the demand for STEM-related material, but it completely misses the best part of the STEM push, which is trying to make STEM open up and appeal to everyone, not just rich white Christian boys. While yes, the conversations are difficult to have, it's a writer's job to address the problems in their subject's history, not hide them away as if all is well and always has been. If you're going to mention that buildings were built to show off power, you darn well better address who actually built them and on whose orders and how that authority was brought to bear. And if you're going to write history today, you darn well better write it like women are a part of the human race.

Let's start with what's done right: illustrations of cool buildings, a (Western-centric) history of architecture, and mentions for buildings that aren't all Western. The East gets some mentions, as do the Americas.

And what's wrong:
Lower class people get sanitized out of this. At some point factory owners are "herding" workers into buildings. Um, what? You can't just brush the serious problems of industrialization off like that.
I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure a lot of people have died on building projects. You wouldn't know it from this book (although Google informs me that none died during the Chrysler project, which maybe should have earned a note)
Also, I just read a book noting a number of women architects, but the only woman who takes a notable place in this book appears at the very end, co-designing with a partner.
Fire exits are drawn in a number of buildings, but the narration doesn't mention that those became mandated because of some serious tragedies.
None of the main illustrations are of pre-colonization American buildings.
"God," singular, Christian, is pretty much assumed as a reader's knowledge base but the Muslim God and the gods of other religions are treated as much less familiar or more qualified.
The writer misses a HUGE opportunity to talk about systems of power, because they literally mention how most of the buildings were built to show off the ruling class's power, but they don't make any mention of problematic forms of labor or privilege or anything like that. (I know it's a kids' book, but this is the kind of rendering invisible that damages our society, and I'm not giving it a pass. At least lay some groundwork for further reading or later discussions of power and oppression.)
A school of design is discussed (and a bathroom is included in the illustration, but there's no indication if bathrooms were included for men and women, or if the default student was expected to be male) but I have no idea if that school permitted women or people of color to study there, because apparently all people are the same default generalization.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains the first coherent appreciation that I've read of the value of modern architecture. And the illustrations by Stephen Biesty are absolutely delightful. I highly recommend this as an architectural history brief for people of any age.

My only criticism is the (typical) focus on white people architecture. The difference between gothic cathedrals & Renaissance cathedrals is given a lot of emphasis, but Hindu temples are glossed in a sentence or two. I don't remember if Buddhism is mentioned at all. China's large architectural variety is ignored, with the Forbidden City the sole representation of Chinese architecture. The Japanese inspiration for modernism is (as usual) also ignored.

That said, the author didn't ignore non-white architecture completely, as others have done. And since it's a primer aimed at an English-speaking audience, the bias could be expected.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, very illustrated, story of the art and science of architecture and construction over time.

It beings with ancient Egyptian pyramids and moves forward to the 21st century.

The book makes wonderful use of fold-outs to give more room for the detailed drawings of the buildings under consideration.

The book tries to tie the various advances/changes in building styles and types to things in history.

[Elizabeth S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both amazing and beautiful. First, covers the basics of buildings through the ages. Then goes into detail for a number of magnificent buildings throughout history including why it was built, what features were innovations, and labeled cutaways showing the various features inside and out. Buildings include (off the top of my head): the pyramids, Cathedral of Notre Dame, Taj Mahal, Sydney Opera House... and more.

[Gustavus Cliffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book that I read through with my son when he was 4 (in many sittings).

We actually have referenced this book since then, mostly the architecture in Hagia Sophia.

I do remember feeling like the explanations for the pyramids were entirely outdated. As well as the details on their structure (at least, I've watched a lecture where a mathematician was explaining that the great pyramids are actually 8 sided in a painfully precise but subtle fashion, rather than 4 straight sides)

[Chainzz . · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations and a brilliant book about architecture. It's not very detailed but if takes you through the history of arcuate. Is defiantly a must if your interested in architecture or wish to get someone young in your life to appreciate buildings

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at some of the world's most famous buildings from ancient to modern times. It is pretty text dense so I would recommend it for children 4th grade and older although younger children would certainly love the illustrations.

[Brandan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative but not very accurate. I enjoyed the approachable nature of the book and the diagrams. There are some significant factual inaccuracies, but the attitude of the writing is enjoyable nonetheless.

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this was written for children, I, an older adult, enjoyed it immensely. The history was fascinating and the illustrations so detailed I spent hours poring over this book this large sized book.
I just wish there was a volume 2 of more interesting and beautiful buildings.

[Mary Xin · Rating 5 out of 5]

great !It's a good book for architects.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible illustrations for building-enthusiasts of any age!

[Harry Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read, gateway to discovering history and basics of building/architecture.

[Ying LU · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 stars for the book and one for all the drawings and sketches.
It is a good book to get a first look in buildings, learned new things.

[Emilee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating architectural look at many famous buildings in history and the world. The book begins by explaining how houses are built from bricks to chimneys to roofs. It also contains how buildings like barns, airports, power plants, water mills and train stations were are built. Here are a few examples of the buildings that a chapter might contain… Pyramid of Djoser, The Temples of Greece, The Parthenon, Hagia Sophia, A white Robe of Churches, The Romans, Notre-dame Cathedral, The Forbidden City, The Renaissance in Europe, Villa Rotonda, The Taj Mahal, The Baroque in Europe, Vaux-le-vicomte, Melk Abbey, Saint Petersburg, The Crystal Palace, The Bauhaus, The Chrysler Building, The Sydney Opera House, The Pompidou Center, and the Straw Bale House. It gives brief history, fun facts, illustrations and a fold out page with fascinating drawings labeled with important information like what it was made of or what was found on the walls. This is the type of book you could pick up and not put down. Some books like this could get overwhelming and boring but this gave the right amount of information without overwhelming the reader.

[Hanalei1208 Be · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aspiring architects will be in their element! Explore this illustrated narrative history of buildings for young readers, an amazing construction in itself.

We spend most of our lives in buildings. We make our homes in them. We go to school in them. We work in them. But why and how did people start making buildings? How did they learn to make them stronger, bigger, and more comfortable? Why did they start to decorate them in different ways? From the pyramid erected so that an Egyptian pharaoh would last forever to the dramatic, machine-like Pompidou Center designed by two young architects, Patrick Dillon’s stories of remarkable buildings — and the remarkable people who made them — celebrates the ingenuity of human creation. Stephen Biesty’s extraordinarily detailed illustrations take us inside famous buildings throughout history and demonstrate just how these marvelous structures fit together. Amazon

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses on the "cultural universal" of shelter and buildings, focusing on the construction of buildings through time. For that reason alone, it is a great book to use to study history, geography, culture, etc. for K-12 students. The illustrations are gorgeous, with pull out flaps to reveal large, labeled diagrams of famous buildings. It's very visually appealing, unique, and a great instructional resource. The information can be a bit repetitive in points, but a teacher could pull out particular pieces and the effect would be just as great.

3/3
*annotate