Product Description

Analysing Architecture offers a unique 'notebook' of architectural strategies to present an engaging introduction to elements and concepts in architectural design. Beautifully illustrated throughout with the author's original drawings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #259768 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'I have not recommended any other books on this topic to my students, because it is currently the classic in the field of architectural design studies.' – Professor Howard Ray Lawrence, Penn State

From the Back Cover
Analysing Architecture offers a unique 'notebook' of architectural strategies to present an engaging introduction to elements and concepts in architectural design. Beautifully illustrated throughout with the author's original drawings, examples are drawn from across architectural history (from primitive places to late 20th century structures) to illustrate analytical themes and to show how drawing can be used to study architecture.

Simon Unwin clearly identifies the key elements of architecture and conceptual themes apparent in buildings. He describes ideas for use in the active process of design. Breaking down the grammar of architecture into themes and 'moves', Unwin exposes its underlying patterns to reveal the organisational strategies that lie beneath the superficial appearances of buildings.

Exploring buildings as results of the interaction of people with the world around them, Analysing Architecture offers a definition of architecture as 'identification of place' and provides a greater understanding of architecture as a creative discipline. This book presents a powerful impetus for readers to develop their own capacities for architectural design.

Updated and revised, this new edition includes more combined elements of architecture and three new case studies.

Customer Reviews

Excellent introduction.
Beginning with the root definition of architecture as its "conceptual organization, its intellectual structures"., the author makes clear its function as "identification of place", goes on to identify the basic elements and concepts, examines the use of natural features of the landscape, analyzes primitive place types, geometry in architecture, space and structure, and other key concepts.
From the campsites of primitive man to the sophisticated structures of the late twentieth century, architecture as an essential function of human activity is explained clearly, and illustrated with the author's own excellent drawings. Highly recommended as a well-organized and readable introduction.

(The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

Fantastic, get it
The book gives you a clear understanding of architecture. Great if you are a first year architecture student. You will find that is will get you through your first year.

Excellent and highly recommended introduction to architectur
This is an excellent book, recommended to anyone seriously interested in architecture. It's starting point is Unwin's ability to draw well - to think through his hands, as it were. This is fundamental to architectural skill and Unwin has used it to 'talk back to himself' and describe the architecture around him. He uses this skill to romp through a huge number and variety of buildings and architectural situations in order to describe architectural strategies. Unwin has at the heart of his book a definition and understanding of architecture that we thoroughly endorse: to be dealt with in terms of its conceptual organisation and intellectual structure. But he adds to this potentially dry definition an emotive overlay or parallel: architecture as the identification of place ("Place is to architecture as meaning is to language.") Thus he takes on th eissue of why we value architecture. (Oddly though, his book makes no reference - even in the bibliography - to D.K.Ching and Geoffrey Baker's similar and earlier books on architectural analysis, both of which are also very good and worth looking up.)