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History of Architecture
Discovery of Science series
history of architecture
by Pierre Jacquet
"Architects should be visionaries. It is they who should plan the cities of the future". These were the words which inaugurated the Congress of the International Union of Architects. In this beautiful History of Architecture, Pierre Jacquet invites us to relive in his company the creation of the great works conceived by the visionaries of architecture.
The buildings of Egypt, Crete, Athens and Rome, recall the history of the earliest Mediterranean civilizations, and of man's fight for his newly gained freedom. And there are also the hypostyle Hall of Karnak, that ambitious attempt to cover a vast area of over 300 feet without a vault; the infinite twists and turns of the palace-labyrinth of King Minos in Crete ; the glory of the Greek temples which seem to echo the words of Sophocles : "Wonders are many and none is more wonderful than man"... and finally Islam, the Far East and America. Do the efforts of architects to set up houses for gods and men in such remote places have anything to teach us? If we thought not, then we should be forgetting the part played by the great Mosque of Cordova, for instance, in the diffusion of Hispaw-Mauresque art in Europe. Nor must we forget that the architects of the Western world of today have begun to turn their attention to Japanese architecture, a reflection and sanctuary of nature, which Europe will take centuries to integrate into its own architecture.
The dome of St. Sophia in Constantinople, "that rainbow bubble" as one crusader called it, establishes for us the link between the East and the Romanesque, and later the Gothic, West. Pierre Jacquet traces lucidly and competently, the marvellous transformation of the barrel-vault, the groin-vault and the pointed arch—that keystone of Gothic architecture—He refuses to separate the history of man from the history of technical advances. From mediaeval architecture onwards we are on more familiar ground, but the author knows how to re-awaken our interest in so well known a subject as the history of Renaissance architecture in Italy and in the rest of Europe. Pierre Jacquet is Professor at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Geneva. He is the author of important works on Greece and Italy. In our book, Pierre Jacquet has given a particular place of honour to anonymous creations, to architecture without architects—a subject of immense fascination.
Gaudi, Nervi, Wright and Le Corbusier point the way to the future. In conclusion, Pierre Jacquet invites us to think about the problems of architecture today. On their solution depends to a large extent, the welfare of our industrial society. Over a hundred pages of illustrations have been carefully chosen and effectively arranged in accordance with the high standard of our collection The Discovery of Science. Here are the other titles of this outstanding series in twelve volumes :
History of Tourism
History of Occult Sciences
History of Archaeological Discoveries
History of Publicity
History of Fashion
History of Great Building Constructions
History of Psychology
History of Social Progress
History of Money and Finance
History of Biology
History of Energy
history of architecture
by Pierre Jacquet
"Architects should be visionaries. It is they who should plan the cities of the future". These were the words which inaugurated the Congress of the International Union of Architects. In this beautiful History of Architecture, Pierre Jacquet invites us to relive in his company the creation of the great works conceived by the visionaries of architecture.
The buildings of Egypt, Crete, Athens and Rome, recall the history of the earliest Mediterranean civilizations, and of man's fight for his newly gained freedom. And there are also the hypostyle Hall of Karnak, that ambitious attempt to cover a vast area of over 300 feet without a vault; the infinite twists and turns of the palace-labyrinth of King Minos in Crete ; the glory of the Greek temples which seem to echo the words of Sophocles : "Wonders are many and none is more wonderful than man"... and finally Islam, the Far East and America. Do the efforts of architects to set up houses for gods and men in such remote places have anything to teach us? If we thought not, then we should be forgetting the part played by the great Mosque of Cordova, for instance, in the diffusion of Hispaw-Mauresque art in Europe. Nor must we forget that the architects of the Western world of today have begun to turn their attention to Japanese architecture, a reflection and sanctuary of nature, which Europe will take centuries to integrate into its own architecture.
The dome of St. Sophia in Constantinople, "that rainbow bubble" as one crusader called it, establishes for us the link between the East and the Romanesque, and later the Gothic, West. Pierre Jacquet traces lucidly and competently, the marvellous transformation of the barrel-vault, the groin-vault and the pointed arch—that keystone of Gothic architecture—He refuses to separate the history of man from the history of technical advances. From mediaeval architecture onwards we are on more familiar ground, but the author knows how to re-awaken our interest in so well known a subject as the history of Renaissance architecture in Italy and in the rest of Europe. Pierre Jacquet is Professor at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Geneva. He is the author of important works on Greece and Italy. In our book, Pierre Jacquet has given a particular place of honour to anonymous creations, to architecture without architects—a subject of immense fascination.
Gaudi, Nervi, Wright and Le Corbusier point the way to the future. In conclusion, Pierre Jacquet invites us to think about the problems of architecture today. On their solution depends to a large extent, the welfare of our industrial society. Over a hundred pages of illustrations have been carefully chosen and effectively arranged in accordance with the high standard of our collection The Discovery of Science. Here are the other titles of this outstanding series in twelve volumes :
History of Tourism
History of Occult Sciences
History of Archaeological Discoveries
History of Publicity
History of Fashion
History of Great Building Constructions
History of Psychology
History of Social Progress
History of Money and Finance
History of Biology
History of Energy
110 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1996
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