The Letters of Colin Rowe

The Letters of Colin Rowe PDF

Author: Rowe Colin

Publisher: Artifice Incorporated

Published: 2017-09-26

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 9781908967534

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Spanning a period of over half a century, from the early 1940s until his death in 1999, Colin Rowe wrote a multitude of letters to his parents in England and to friends Henry Russell Hitchcock and Ernst Gombrich; to colleagues Stanford Anderson, Robert Maxwell, Michael Spens, Alan Colquhoun, Alvin Boyarsky, John Miller; to architects Louis Kahn and Peter Eisenman; and most intimately and candidly, to his brother, sister-in-law, and nephews in Oxford, England.

I Almost Forgot

I Almost Forgot PDF

Author: Daniel Naegele

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2023-01-10

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 0262047128

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Unpublished writings of Colin Rowe—letters, essays, lectures, and a postcard—clarify his thinking on key concepts while revealing his wit and erudition. Colin Rowe (1920–1999) was one of the great architectural historians of the twentieth century, publishing the influential works The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays (1976) and Collage City (1978). While his written work was rigorous and authoritative, his lectures and letters were more casual, “carefully careless,” both witty and erudite. I Almost Forgot gathers twenty-three such writings—letters, essays, lectures, a postcard, and a eulogy. Both edifying and entertaining, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, occasionally scathing, they fill in personal details and clarify key concepts in Rowe’s work. In these writings, Rowe tells of the “Corbu superstructure upon a beaux-arts base” that refugee Polish architects and their students introduced to his alma mater, the University of Liverpool, in the early 1940s. He characterizes his controversial essay “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa” as a “pretty clever but, otherwise, perfectly innocent little article,” and reports that Le Corbusier’s Villa Schwob “played an entirely disproportionate role in my mental life.” Rowe’s voice and opinions are strong in his discussions of architecture, current events, and his own life and work. Each piece begins with a brief introduction by the volume editor. The writings are illustrated by images of Rowe’s drawings, letters, and postcards; photographs and drawings of Rowe’s only built work; and illustrations chosen by Rowe for lectures.

Louis Kahn: The Importance of Drawing

Louis Kahn: The Importance of Drawing PDF

Author: Michael Merrill

Publisher: Lars Muller Publishers

Published: 2020-08

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 9783037786444

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An astounding treasury of drawings and plans from one of the 20th century's greatest architects, offering unprecedented insight into his design process "The importance of a drawing is immense, because it's the architect's language," famed architect Louis Kahn, one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, told his masterclass in 1967. While much of his built work has been heavily studied, this publication chooses instead to focus on Kahn's prolific arsenal of drawings and plans, some of which were never realized. The Importance of a Drawingprovides an in-depth look into the subtleties of Kahn's designs, featuring incisive analysis from architectural experts and over 600 high-quality reproductions of work by Kahn and his associates. A testament to the architect's meticulous craft, this volume is an essential addition to the library of established designers as well as students of architecture. Louis Kahn(1901-74) was an Estonian-born American architect who worked in Philadelphia for the majority of his life. Inspired early in his career by European medievalism and later the ruins of much older civilizations, Kahn was notable for his ability to meld the modernist tendencies of his time with the classical poise of ancient monuments. Some of his major designs include the National Parliament House in Dhaka, Bangladesh and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. Some of Kahn's unrealized projects, such as the Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island, have since been constructed posthumously. Kahn taught at Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957 and then at the University of Pennsylvania until his death.

Collage City

Collage City PDF

Author: Colin Rowe

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1984-03-15

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 9780262680424

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This book is a critical reappraisal of contemporary theories of urban planning and design and of the role of the architect-planner in an urban context. The authors, rejecting the grand utopian visions of "total planning" and "total design," propose instead a "collage city" which can accommodate a whole range of utopias in miniature.

Transparency

Transparency PDF

Author: Colin Rowe

Publisher: Birkhaüser

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783764356156

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"Transparency," by Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, originally published in English in 1964 (in Perspecta 8), followed by a German translation in 1968, is one of the main modern reference texts for any student of architecture. Rowe and Slutzky co-founded the architects group "Texas Rangers" at the University of Texas in Austin, together with John Hejduk, Werner Seligmann and Bernhard Hoesli. In conjunction with their teaching activities, the group members sought to develop a new method for architectural design and proceeded to test their models in the teaching environment. This edition of Transparency is provided with a commentary by Bernhard Hoesli and an introduction by the art and architecture historian Werner Oechslin.

Five Architects

Five Architects PDF

Author: Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)

Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press

Published: 1975

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13:

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Five Architects, originally published in 1975, grew out of a meeting of the CASE group (Conference of Architects for the Study of the Environment) held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1969. The purpose of this gathering was to exhibit and criticize the work of five architects -- Eisenman, Graves, Gwathmey, Hejduk, and Meier -- who constituted a New York school, and who are now among the most influential architects working today.The buildings shown here have more diversity than one might expect from a school, but share certain properties of form, scale, and treatment of material. Collectively, their work makes a modest claim: it is only architecture, not the salvation of man and the redemption of the earth.Providing complete drawings and photographic documentation, this collection also includes a comparative critique by Kenneth Frampton, an Introduction by Colin Rowe that suggests a still broader context for the work as a whole, and two short texts in which individual positions are outlined. Now back in,print, Five Architects serves as a reference to the early work of some of America's most important architects and provides us with a glimpse back at the direction of architecture as they saw it over twenty years ago.

Colin Rowe's Gospel of Modern Architecture

Colin Rowe's Gospel of Modern Architecture PDF

Author: Braden R. Engel

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2022-05-11

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1527582957

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Colin Rowe is recognized as one of the most influential architecture teachers of the twentieth century, yet he is more popularly known for his critical essays. This book investigates the methods that made Rowe such an influential teacher. Paralleling the promises of the modernists to biblical prophecies of salvation, Rowe led his students into the temptations of modern architecture in order to test their convictions in architectural design. Everything Rowe did taught, and, beyond his published writing, this book uniquely pulls from his personal notes, sketches, talks, and thoughts. This analysis of Rowe’s use of irony, paradox, ambiguity, and subversion will benefit educators and designers interested in the roles of mischief and curiosity in creative endeavors. The book offers a more balanced appreciation of Colin Rowe, while rethinking attitudes to pedagogy, historical interpretation, and meaning in the arts.

Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism

Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism PDF

Author: Rudolf Wittkower

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1971

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780393005998

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Sir Kenneth Clark wrote in the Architectural Review, that the first result of this book was "to dispose, once and for all, of the hedonist, or purely aesthetic, theory of Renaissance architecture, ' and this defines Wittkower's intention in a nutshell.

Experiencing Architecture, second edition

Experiencing Architecture, second edition PDF

Author: Steen Eiler Rasmussen

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1964-03-15

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780262680028

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A classic examination of superb design through the centuries. Widely regarded as a classic in the field, Experiencing Architecture explores the history and promise of good design. Generously illustrated with historical examples of designing excellence—ranging from teacups, riding boots, and golf balls to the villas of Palladio and the fish-feeding pavilion of Beijing's Winter Palace—Rasmussen's accessible guide invites us to appreciate architecture not only as a profession, but as an art that shapes everyday experience. In the past, Rasmussen argues, architecture was not just an individual pursuit, but a community undertaking. Dwellings were built with a natural feeling for place, materials and use, resulting in “a remarkably suitable comeliness.” While we cannot return to a former age, Rasmussen notes, we can still design spaces that are beautiful and useful by seeking to understand architecture as an art form that must be experienced. An understanding of good design comes not only from one's professional experience of architecture as an abstract, individual pursuit, but also from one's shared, everyday experience of architecture in real time—its particular use of light, color, shape, scale, texture, rhythm and sound. Experiencing Architecture reminds us of what good architectural design has accomplished over time, what it can accomplish still, and why it is worth pursuing. Wide-ranging and approachable, it is for anyone who has ever wondered “what instrument the architect plays on.”

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (Anniversary Edition)

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (Anniversary Edition) PDF

Author: Stephen Greenblatt

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2010-05-03

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 0393079848

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Named One of Esquire's 50 Best Biographies of All Time The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, reissued with a new afterword for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. A young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? Stephen Greenblatt brings us down to earth to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life, could have become the world’s greatest playwright.