ABC of Architecture [antikvár]

PREFACE Teachers learn from their students. In more than three decades of teaching undergraduates in the liberal arts I have learned that architecture can be for them a deeply mysterious subject. There are exceptions, of course, but many students approach it with fear and misgiving, if not with fear and loathing. Most of them, especially those who major in art history, can handle the formal analysis of a painting or a piece of sculpture, and then pass on to its story, if it tells one, or its meaning, if it has one. Buildings can bewilder them. There are no "pictures"; there is, apparently, only geometry. They might be able to handle the formal analysis, if only they knew where to begin, if only they had the vocabulary. Many of them are unconscious of the fact that architecture is a form of communication, that a building conveys meaning. The following is a primer, a brief introduction to architecture for the beginning undergraduate or educated amateur. 1 find the existing basic books too prolix: fine if you already know the subject; too lengthy, too labyrinthine, if you do not. As a primer this book is intended to provide a toehold on the subject. It contains a précis for those short on time and a more leisurely discussion for the armchair set. To avoid repetition, read one or the other. "Incompetence will show in the use of too many words," according to Ezra Pound, whose ABC of Reading I discovered while working on this book. 1 have tried to keep that warning in mind. The reader wishing to move on from this slender toehold to a more substantial footing will find a few detailed or specialized books named in the reading list. They will carry the student to the next level.