Architectural Details: A Visual Guide to 5000 Years of Building Styles

by Emily Cole

Do you know a Doric column when you see one? Of course. But what about an entablature, a hypostyle, a pylon, or a pagoda? Architectural Details uses beautifully engraved plates from the great works of architectural history to illustrate a show-and-tell journey round the architecture of civilizations east and west, from Ancient Egypt to the Industrial Revolution. Most of the drawings and engravings have been taken from early sources, unparalleled for their elegance and delicacy of line, as well as for the amount of fine detail they offer. Extended captions and annotation supply you with a complete naming of parts which, as well as identifying and defining the correct terminology, will help you to understand how architects have planned and made the buildings of the past, from Amenhotep to Palladio, and Vitruvius to Wren.

Genres: Architecture, History, Art, Reference, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2017

Reviews

[Ivan Koma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Дизайн книги довольно спорный, эти столбцы, которые постоянно смещаются в пространстве, могут раздражать.
В самом начале была верная мысль про знакомство с архитектурой через образы и картинки, на деле в книге будет лишь подобие картинок, какие-то блеклые рисунки (видимо такие рисунки в книге стоят дешевле всего для издательства, тут вопросы скорее к издателю), при этом они еще и маленькие, находящиеся в загонах тех же столбцов, от этого глаза разбегаются и теряешь концентрацию на рисунках
Понравился хронологический порядок разбора архитектуры, за это большой плюс
К сожалению не дочитал из-за потери концентрации, видимо пока нет сильного вдохновения, но книга определенно стоит внимания и может быть я к ней еще вернусь
(203стр)

[Hussein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Perfect balance of imagery and text. Found this in the British Museum and fell in love with it instantly! Well worth the buy.

The book is very well designed and laid out, making for a great reading experience. I've learnt a lot just flicking through and reading the little text boxes next to some illustration I am particularly interested in.

The fact that the book spans 5000 years is a good thing. I wasn't sure, to start with, whether I'd be at all interested in the earliest stages of architecture, but sticking my nose in the first sections of the book did give some very beneficial knowledge. It's good to be able to compare the Baroque and Rococo, let's say, to Early Classical India.

Overall, it's my current favourite in the genre, and as I'm a keen sketcher, I pull the book out quite often to sketch one of the wonderful illustrations within this book. I recommend this book with great enthusiasm to you.