Isms: Understanding Architecture

by Jeremy Melvin

"Following in the footsteps of ...Isms: Understanding Art comes this guide for anyone who loves beautiful buildings yet lacks a formal education in architectural history. With this pocket-sized tool in hand, anyone can navigate through the world's byways learning to identify architectural styles, recognize significant movements, and intelligently discuss the built environment." "...Isms: Understanding Architectural Styles features an engaging yet informative style with an informal, direct tone in order to demystify the "isms" that are often used to define, yet more often misleadingly cloud, stylistic movements in architecture. Each architectural movement is explained in simple terms and made more accessible to the casual architecture aficionado with an array of pictured examples. Alongside these examples are highlights of the key features of the style, past stylistic sources and influences, important practitioners, and notable built examples. Readers are encouraged to think of the "isms" as useful yet imprecise tools for conversation and exploration rather than as restrictive academic definitions." The comprehensive structure of ...Isms: Understanding Architectural Styles makes it possible for anyone to enjoy and understand great - and sometimes not-so-great - architecture whether viewing a Baroque masterpiece from a European cafe or wandering the urban canyons of a North American metropolis. No other portable guide will so clearly and succinctly put into context the world's many "built environments."

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Art, Reference

168 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2005

Reviews

[Nea · Rating 2 out of 5]

من کتاب «گرایش‌های معماری» تألیف جرمی ملوین با ترجمه‌ی فرزاد فرید افشین رو از کتابخونه گرفتم، چون دنبال یه کتاب مرتبط با معماری بودم.
چند صفحه‌ی اولش رو خوندم و واقعاً خوندنش برام سخت بود؛ مدام وسطش خوابم می‌گرفت. نمی‌دونم مشکل از ترجمه بود یا خود متن، ولی اصلاً برام جذاب نبود.

انتظارم این بود که درباره‌ی مکاتب و اصطلاحات معماری توضیح بده، طوری که اول مفهوم‌ها رو بفهمیم و بعد برسیم به خود گرایش‌ها. ولی کتاب بیشتر فقط اسم گرایش‌ها و یه تاریخچه‌ی خیلی خشک ازشون رو گفته بود؛ بدون اینکه بره سراغ خاستگاه، دلیل شکل‌گیری جنبش‌ها یا اینکه اصلاً چرا به وجود اومدن.

از یه جایی به بعد، کلاً متن‌ها رو ول کردم و فقط تصاویر رو نگاه می‌کردم، چون حس می‌کردم نوشته‌ها چیز خاصی به من اضافه نمی‌کنن؛ فقط دارم می‌خونم بدون اینکه واقعاً بفهمم.
یه لحظه حتی با خودم فکر کردم شاید مشکل از خودمه، شاید دیگه حوصله‌ی کتاب‌های علمی و غیر داستانی رو ندارم، نمیدونم.

در عوض، تصاویر کتاب واقعاً شگفت‌انگیز بودن. نمونه‌ها رو خیلی دوست داشتم، مخصوصاً چون چاپ رنگی داشت و از این نظر لذت‌بخش بود.

[Soledad · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5/5🌟

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Victorian architecture is often characterised as a battle of styles, between Gothic and Classical. However, the struggle actually lay deeper than this, in a profound desire to bring an understanding of new technologies and social change, incorporating them within architectural tradition.”

This book does explore a wide ranging variety of architectural styles going way back to the likes of the Pre-Columbianism of Latin America, European Classicism and Japanese Shintoism, taking us right into the 21st Century with the likes of Ecoism, Deconstructivism and Bioclimatism. There are times when this takes on a fairly quirky approach to describing architecture, one which is likely to upset many of the purists. I am no expert on the subject, but I would say I have a basic grounding on many aspects of it, but there were some really strange decisions in here. We get terms like Georgian Urbanism in place of Georgian or Neo-Georgian, and Indism is used to describe the Taj Mahal, which I always understood as Mughal. By going to such efforts to try and re-name architectural terms that are long established and widely understood, it actually undermines the very purpose of a reference guide, and only adds confusion, which is really a bit silly.

The layout is fresh, colourful and fond of icons. We get plenty of clear and impressive photos and images of the styles described. Although at times we can see certain buildings and architectural forms in new ways, invariably various styles are going to overlap and intertwine, but often we are in serious danger of getting lost in a blizzard of puzzling isms.

This a short, informative and occasionally frustrating guide that covers most of the bases adequately, there are times when the relationship between the architecture, history, politics and power is tied in really well, but there are other times when it’s just too vague and brief, which can give it a rushed, tokenistic feel. There are better guides out there and this one maybe tries a little too hard to take on a different approach, but I did learn a lot of interesting facts and there is some nice description in here too.

[Maria Ines · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know nothing about architecture. Some of the descriptions of each ism felt too convoluted to get something useful out of them. But it was nice to be able to associate particular buildings to particular moments in history.

[Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally good content for such a small book, there were a few classifications that seem a bit off (such as Niemeyer = Regionalism, Berlin Philharmonic = Functionalism...), they may be technically correct in some prosaic definition of the term but they are far from quintessential representations of the respective styles as the books brevity forces it to imply.

[Olivia Sell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book for architecture interested. I recommend reading this book. This book contained moderate information and pictures. The book had describings of many Isms, which is very grateful. Good descriptions and structure.

[Sofie · Rating 4 out of 5]

en veldig oversiktlig oppsummering av arkitekturteori med beste Eivind Kasa

[Andreea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book for one of my cousins who seems to be interested in architecture. She is still in high school so it might change, but she might find this book interesting.

My biggest complain is regarding the writer making suppositions without facts, especially when it comes to history and ancient times. But there aren't a lot of those so it's not a big deal.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow. This book needed a better editor like for serious. But dozens of typos aside, it was an interesting read about the multitudinous "isms" of architecture.

[Nati Vozian · Rating 4 out of 5]

O călătorie in timp, concepte si stiluri. O carte pe întelesul tuturor despre dezvoltarea arhitecturii.