Before you leave...
Take 20% off your first order
20% off
Enter the code below at checkout to get 20% off your first order
Origins of Architectural Pleasure (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520215054)
Vendor:
Grant Hildebrand
Product type:
Books
- $57.95
$57.95- $57.95
- Unit price
- per
Subtotal:
$57.95
Description
xDo survival instincts have anything to do with our architectural choices--our liking for a certain room, a special stairway, a plaza in a particular city? In this engaging study Grant Hildebrand discusses ways in which architectural forms emulate some archetypal settings that humans have found appealing--and useful to survival--from ancient times to the present.
Speculating that nature has "designed" us to prefer certain conditions and experiences, Hildebrand is interested in how the characteristics of our most satisfying built environments mesh with Darwinian selection. In examining the appeal of such survival-based characteristics he cites architectural examples spanning five continents and five millennia. Among those included are the Palace of Minos, the Alhambra, Wells cathedral, the Shinto shrine at Ise, the Piazza San Marco, Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, a Seattle condominium, and recent houses by Eric Owen Moss and Arne Bystrom.
Just what characteristics bestow evolutionary benefits? "Refuge and prospect" offer a protective place of concealment close to a foraging and hunting ground. "Enticement" invites the safe exploration of an information-rich setting where worthwhile discoveries await. "Peril" elicits an emotion of pleasurable fear and so tests and increases our competence in the face of danger: thus the attraction of a skyscraper or a house poised over a vertiginous ravine. "Order and complexity" tease our intuitions for sorting complex information into survival-useful categories.
Gracefully written, with excellent illustrations that complement the text, Origins of Architectural Pleasure will open the reader's eyes to new ways of seeing a home, a workplace, a vacation setting, even a particular table in a restaurant. It also suggests important design considerations for buildings with a more pressing mandate for human appeal, such as hospitals, retirement homes, and hospices.
Author: Grant Hildebrand
ISBN-10: 0520215052
ISBN-13: 9780520215054
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 06/30/1999
Pages: 200
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 10.10h x 7.30w x 0.80d
Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 05/01/1999 pg. 71
Ingram Advance 06/01/1999 pg. 25
Foreword 06/01/1999 pg. 50
Booklist 06/15/1999 pg. 1766
Speculating that nature has "designed" us to prefer certain conditions and experiences, Hildebrand is interested in how the characteristics of our most satisfying built environments mesh with Darwinian selection. In examining the appeal of such survival-based characteristics he cites architectural examples spanning five continents and five millennia. Among those included are the Palace of Minos, the Alhambra, Wells cathedral, the Shinto shrine at Ise, the Piazza San Marco, Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, a Seattle condominium, and recent houses by Eric Owen Moss and Arne Bystrom.
Just what characteristics bestow evolutionary benefits? "Refuge and prospect" offer a protective place of concealment close to a foraging and hunting ground. "Enticement" invites the safe exploration of an information-rich setting where worthwhile discoveries await. "Peril" elicits an emotion of pleasurable fear and so tests and increases our competence in the face of danger: thus the attraction of a skyscraper or a house poised over a vertiginous ravine. "Order and complexity" tease our intuitions for sorting complex information into survival-useful categories.
Gracefully written, with excellent illustrations that complement the text, Origins of Architectural Pleasure will open the reader's eyes to new ways of seeing a home, a workplace, a vacation setting, even a particular table in a restaurant. It also suggests important design considerations for buildings with a more pressing mandate for human appeal, such as hospitals, retirement homes, and hospices.
Author: Grant Hildebrand
ISBN-10: 0520215052
ISBN-13: 9780520215054
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 06/30/1999
Pages: 200
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 10.10h x 7.30w x 0.80d
Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 05/01/1999 pg. 71
Ingram Advance 06/01/1999 pg. 25
Foreword 06/01/1999 pg. 50
Booklist 06/15/1999 pg. 1766
By Grant Hildebrand
xGrant Hildebrand is Professor of Architecture and Art History at the University of Washington, Seattle, and the author of The Wright Space: Pattern and Meaning in Frank Lloyd Wright's Houses (1991).
Recently Viewed Products
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.