A strikingly original, beautifully narrated history of Western architecture and the cultural transformations that it represents Concrete, marble, steel, brick: little else made by human hands seems as stable, as immutable, as a building. Yet the life of any structure is neither fixed nor timeless. Outliving their original contexts and purposes, buildings are forced to adapt to each succeeding age. To survive, they must become shape-shifters. In an inspired refashioning of architectural history, Edward Hollis recounts more than a dozen stories of such metamorphosis, highlighting the way in which even the most familiar structures all change over time into "something rich and strange." The Parthenon, that epitome of a ruined temple, was for centuries a working church and then a mosque; the cathedral of Notre Dame was "restored" to a design that none of its original makers would have recognized. Remains of the Berlin Wall, meanwhile, which was once gleefully smashed and bulldozed, are now treated as precious relics. With The Secret Lives of Buildings, Edward Hollis recounts the most enthralling of these metamorphoses and shows how buildings have come to embody the history of Western culture.

Not since the 1920s has American architecture undergone such fundamental changes asthose which are revitalizing the profession today. But in this period of great artistic fertilityand unrest, there has yet to emerge a critical theory capable of analyzing the conditions andexamining the attitudes by which our architecture is being redefined.Gavin Macrae-Gibson is thefirst of a generation of architects educated in the 1970s to construct a method of criticismpowerful enough to interpret this new architecture. The theory is built upon a close reading ofseven works, all completed in the 1980s: Frank Gehry's Gehry House in Santa Monica, Peter Eisenman'sHouse El Even Odd, Cesar Pelli's Four Leaf Towers in Houston, Michael Graves' Portland PublicService building, Robert Stern's Bozzi residence in East Hampton, Allan Greenberg's ManchesterSuperior Courthouse in Connecticut, and Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown's Gordon Wu Hall atPrinceton.The author uses urban plans, and architectural drawings and photographs to reveal thelayers of meaning present in each building, including the deepest layer-its secret life. At thislevel the buildings have in common the fact that their meaning is derived from the realities of animperfect present and no longer from the anticipation of a utopian future.Gavin Macrae-Gibson is apracticing architect. He has been Visiting Lecturer in Architectural Theory at Yale University since1982, and has taught and lectured widely throughout the United States and Canada. A GrahamFoundation Book.The Graham Foundation Architecture Series Two decades ago, the Graham Foundation forAdvanced Study in the Fine Arts published Robert Venturi's epoch-making Complexity and Contradictionin Architecture in association with the Museum of Modern Art. Now the foundation is renewing itscommitment to architectural literature by announcing the first two titles of a new series it islaunching with The MIT Press.The aim is to publish books that are of crucial importance to thetheory and practice of architecture, and that will enhance the understanding of architecture as ahumanist discipline. The series will feature original texts by contemporary architects, historians,theorists, and critics.

* * * 'Informative and entertaining, this publication is a feast for the eyes, while also thought provoking, and offers excellent inspiration for daydreaming about what makes the perfect, modern house.' Wallpaper 'A fascinating selection of innovative homes....this is a thoughtful journey through the evolution of domestic architecture.' Sunday Express Over the last century the way that we live at home has changed dramatically. Nothing short of a design revolution has transformed our houses and the spaces within them - moving from traditional patterns of living all the way through to an era of more fluid, open-plan and modern styles. Whether we live in a new home or a period house, our spaces will have been shaped one way or another by the pioneering Modernists and Mid-century architects and designers who argued for a fresh way of life. Architectural and design writer Dominic Bradbury charts the course of this voyage all the way from the late 19th century through to the houses of today in this ground-breaking book. Over nineteen thematic chapters, he explains the way our houses have been reinvented, while taking in - along the way - the giants of Art Deco, influential Modernists including Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as post-war innovators such as Eero Saarinen and Philip Johnson. Taking us from the 20th to the 21st century, Bradbury explores the progress of 'modernity' itself and reveals the secret history of our very own homes.

A dual biography of the Sydney Opera House and its elusive master craftsman. Utzon was desperate to escape the fame that followed him after his creation came to fruition in 1966, and he remains resistant to any serious reflection on his life and work. It has taken 30 years of persistent research to gain an understanding of his character.

This introductory volume to Alexander's other works, A Pattern of Language and The Oregon Experiment, explains concepts fundamental to his original approaches to the theory and application of architecture.

Georgian landscape gardens are among the most visited and enjoyed of the UK's historical treasures. The Georgian garden has also been hailed as the greatest British contribution to European Art, seen as a beautiful composition created from grass, trees and water - a landscape for contemplation. But scratch below the surface and history reveals these gardens were a lot less serene and, in places, a great deal more scandalous.Beautifully illustrated in colour and black & white, this book is about the daily life of the Georgian garden. It reveals its previously untold secrets from early morning rides through to evening amorous liaisons. It explains how by the eighteenth century there was a desire to escape the busy country house where privacy was at a premium, and how these gardens evolved aesthetically, with modestly-sized, far-flung temples and other eye-catchers, to cater for escape and solitude as well as food, drink, music and fireworks. Its publication coincides with the 2016 tercentenary of the birth of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, arguably Britain's greatest ever landscape gardener, and the book is uniquely positioned to put Brown's work into its social context.

Illustrated with hundreds of illuminating line drawings, this classic guide reveals virtually every secret of a building's function: how it stands up, keeps its occupants safe and comfortable, gets built, grows old, and dies--and why some buildings do this so much better than others. Drawing on things he's learned from the many buildings he himself designed (and in some cases built with his own hands), Edward Allen explains complex phenomena such as the role of the sun in heating buildings and the range of structural devices that are used for support, from trusses and bearing walls to post-tensioned concrete beams and corbeled vaults. He stresses the importance of intelligent design in dealing with such problems as overheating and overcooling, excessive energy use, leaky roofs and windows, fire safety, and noisy interiors. He serves up some surprises: thermal insulation is generally a better investment than solar collectors; board fences are not effective noise barriers; there's one type of window that can be left open during a rainstorm. The new edition emphasizes "green" architecture and eco-conscious design and construction. It features a prologue on sustainable construction, and includes new information on topics such as the collapse of the World Trade Center, sick building syndrome, and EIFS failures and how they could have been prevented. Allen also highlights the array of amazing new building materials now available, such as self-cleaning glass, photovoltaics, transparent ceramics, cloud gel, and super-high-strength concrete and structural fibers. Edward Allen makes it easy for everyone--from armchair architects and sidewalk superintendents to students of architecture and construction--to understand the mysteries and complexities of even the largest building, from how it recycles waste and controls the movement of air, to how it is kept alive and growing.