Best architecture criticism books according to redditors
We found 188 Reddit comments discussing the best architecture criticism books. We ranked the 77 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 188 Reddit comments discussing the best architecture criticism books. We ranked the 77 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
That's fantastic. There's a design pattern* associated with balconies, and the vast majority of apartment complexes make them so small they are useless, and in some cases they make the space even less accessible. It looks like they got the proportions right, but i wonder if it feels crowded.
I don't remember the page # but here's the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construction-Environmental/dp/0195019199
I totally love the Christopher Alexander books. Definitely check out his The Timeless Way of Building which is a great companion piece to A Pattern Language. You should know that his works, while great in my opinion, are sort of considered idiosyncratic and not really in the mainstream of architecture/urban design.
Here's a short reading list you should look at:
The Smart Growth Manual and Suburban Nation by Andres Duany & Jeff Speck. Another set of sort-of-companion works, the Manual has a concrete set of recommendations inspired by the critique of modern town planning in Suburban Nation and might be more useful for your purposes.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs is probably the most famous and influential book on city planning ever and contains a lot of really original and thoughtful insights on cities. Despite being over half-a-century old it feels very contemporary and relevant.
The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler is similarly mostly a critique of modernist planning principles but is both short and very well written so I'd definitely recommend checking it out.
Makeshift Metropolis by Witold Rybczynski: I can't recommend this entire book, but it does contain (in my opinion) the best summary of the history of American urban planning. Really useful for a historical perspective on different schools of thought in city design over the years.
The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup is the book on parking policy. It's huge (700+ pages) and very thorough and academic, so it might be harder to get through than the other, more popular-audience-oriented titles on the list, but if you want to include parking as a gameplay element, I really can't recommend it highly enough. It's a problem that's thorny enough most city games just ignore it entirely: Simcity2013's developers say they abandoned it after realizing it would mean most of their players' cities would be covered in parking lots, ignoring that most actual American cities are indeed covered in parking lots.
Finally there's a bunch of great blogs/websites out there you should check out: Streetsblog is definitely a giant in transportation/design blogging and has a really capable team of journalists and a staggering amount of content. Chuck Marohn's Strong Towns blog and Podcast are a great source for thinking about these issues more in terms of smaller towns and municipalities (in contrast to Streetsblog's focus on major metropolitan areas). The Sightline Daily's blog does amazing planning/transpo coverage of the Pacific Northwest. Finally [The Atlantic Cities] (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/) blog has incredible coverage on city-issues around the world.
I hope this was helpful and not overwhelming. It's a pretty big (and in my opinion, interesting) topic, so there's a lot of ground to cover even in an introductory sense.
In this exact order:
I'd add The Timeless Way of Building ( www.amazon.com/dp/0195024028 ) to this list, especially for level design purposes - not only does it provide a fairly gentle introduction to the notion of design patterns, it's also a great way of understanding some of the specifics behind how architecture affects people emotionally and how particular building patterns evoke particular moods.
I was looking into being an architect before I got into Computer Engineering. It is very surprising how universal interaction design is.
The psychology of how humans work is just as useful in designing floorplans as it is in designing websites.
In Computer Science, the idea of "design patterns" actually originated from the writings of a building architect: http://www.amazon.com/The-Timeless-Building-Christopher-Alexander/dp/0195024028
If anyone wants to know how we got where we are today, read Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus To Our House. Great book that lays out the story of how modernism came to dominate architecture.
Youd enjoy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Chicago-David-Garrard-Lowe/dp/0226494322
hundreds of pages of photographs of all the gems this city demolished...it can be pretty painful to get through
that said, I do love Mies' designs. i could sit in Daley Plaza from sunrise to sunset on a and just watch the way the light plays with and interacts with the lobby and the glass of the building. its sublime. and at night it transforms into this perfect box of glowing simplicity and refinement. i think his designs can be hard to love at first glance, but when you really just stop and allow yourself to study what it was he was doing, and how well he executed it, you can start to appreciate what a genius he was.
also have to understand that he was ushering in an entirely new idea with modernism in design. the rejection of ornamentation and instead elevating and celebrating the architecture and form of the building itself was forward thinking and a revolutionary idea for its time. now of course every other building is some knock off of this idea, but when you compare the knock offs to Mies' buildings, you also start to see just how much care and attention he paid to small details and materials. some might consider it austere and clinical, but i think in a hectic world filled with chaos and information overload, his designs now more than ever are an expression of contemplative and meditative spaces that are increasingly lacking
https://s9.postimg.org/drc2zdmgf/balthazar-korab-architecture-photography-now-on-display-in-chica.jpg
https://s9.postimg.org/84fq1bz73/Mies-van-der-_Rohe-_United-_States-_Chicago-_Federal-_Center-05-_Samuel.jpg
https://s9.postimg.org/4jjuion3z/3-chicagofedcenterlobby.jpg
https://s9.postimg.org/592mv1vdb/49d5a9666811b0fc78ebae89f4ca56d8.jpg
https://s9.postimg.org/xago85srj/8bcd34bd.jpg
https://s9.postimg.org/puhemdkhr/9ca5bde3650f3a7958f90ba48e4d8110.png
the irony is, to your point, we did have a neo-classical revival to an extent in the form of Post Modernism. the Harold Washington Library is a great example of this. unfortunately, a lot of the other designs that came out of that style didnt use the same level of craftsmanship, or they substituted concrete instead of using real brick. as a result, a lot of them have not aged that well and just come of looking kind of poorly executed and cheap.
Highly recommend Geometry of Design by Kimberly Elam.
Sounds like they are following the advice of A Pattern Language.
No Kunsler??? The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler is fantastic.
As a political theory undergrad who transferred to architecture school because of the fascinating interplay between political structures, power, and the built environment, I have to say your question isn't fluffy at all. Quite a bit of excellent work covers the subject you're exploring.
Sigfried Gideon's Space, Time, and Architecture is a good place to start.
Foucault talks extensively about how liberating machines can be turned into machines of oppression. It's an interview he gave in the 70's (I think), I'll have to look it up when I head home.
The Ethical Function of Architecture discusses how value systems are translated into the built environment.
I think you can easily create an analytic framework that says something along the lines of "the built environment is the political environment, made physical". As another poster suggests, you could look at Speer and Terragni and contrast them with Corbusier, Mies, Rem, and even Vitruvius; you could easily identify departure points where the 'dictators' made aesthetic decisions to re-enforce the hegemony of the state, and the 'democrats' made decisions to promote liberty, the church, capitalism etc.
Your question really pertains to architectural judgement. There is a book by Samir Younes called Imperfect City that addresses that topic in depth. Here is a lecture discussing some of the ideas in the book.
Start here with "A Pattern Language" considered to be the bible by many architects, but it's very readable for the layman. Well worth $40 and you will learn a lot about the elements of building.
Fixing existing developments and creating better ones in the future are very different beasts. One very influential group working on latter is the Congress for New Urbanism. A useful volume by a few of CNU's leading practioners is Suburban Nation. One pertinent critique of New Urbanism though is that is has been relatively ineffective about the retrofitting you describe. For that you might check out books like Retrofitting Suburbia.
If you want a good rant on how we got into the mess J.H. Kunstler's Geography of Nowhere is an angry read. On patterns that underlay places we like being in, there is the always present work of Christopher Alexander. For my money one of the most under-read great urbanists of our time is Richard Sennett, particularly his book The Uses of Disorder.
Finally, Jacob's has a lot of prescriptive stuff in Death and Life. I'll give you that it is not as rule-based as most contemporary approaches, but therein lies its greatness.
They won't teach the most, but for photography and history, check out these two books on the brilliant photographer Richard Nickel:
These are my most treasured sitting on the shelf, and convinced me more than anything else did to move here.
His life story is really compelling. His wikipedia article is well worth a read.
Edit: This photo is from They All Fall Down, showing him protesting the looming demolition of the Adler & Sullivan-designed Garrick Theater. Bummed WBEZ didn't include one of these two books on the list.
I'm a big fan of Not so Big House by Sarah Susanka. The book doesn't really contain actionable information -- it's more about presenting and promoting her thesis that we should spend our housing budgets on well designed, well built homes with smaller footprints rather than using the same budget to build a larger house with worse design or materials.
I personally think you should use an architect if you have the budget. The knowledge they can bring to the process isn't really something a layperson can replicate well. If you do want to try designing your own, A Pattern Language would be an interesting read. It can provide some useful rules of thumb regarding specific design elements that you might not otherwise consider.
Also you should familiarize yourself with passive solar building design. If you consider the concepts when developing a design and choosing a site you'll be able to leverage them for cheaper heating/cooling at little or no additional design cost. Building a well-insulated structure (a big part of passive solar design) also makes for a more comfortable home in terms of thermal regulation, noise management, air quality management, etc.
Interaction Design
Interior Design
Landscape Architecture
Lighting Design
Product Design
Product Design
Sound Design
Urban Design
* Cities for People by Jan Gehl
Web Design
I've read "Dwellings" by Paul Oliver. It's quite good. It only speaks to housing, but it is geographically diverse, speaks to a variety of issues including culture (spatial relations, ornamentation), construction techniques, environmental suitability, and informal settlements, for both urban cultures and very remote settlements. Amazon lists it at just under $30 (at Amazon.ca, they have 2 copies left, unlike Amazon.com). If cost is a major barrier, you could also consider trying to find it, or others, at a library.
Oliver's book is more of a catalogue. Academically, Bernard Rudofsky's "Architecture Without Architects" is a seminal text on the subject. I haven't read it personally, so I can't make a recommendation, but I will say that I would personally be interested in reading it. I imagine that this book would try to locate vernacular buildings within architectural discourse, and is probably less comprehensive geographically, culturally and historically than Oliver's. And it is almost within your price range.
In my humble opinion, the following are great and important reads for a newcomer into the subject.
Experiencing Architecture by Rasmussen
Any and ALL of Frank Ching's books, starting with Form, Space and Order
Sun, Wind, and Light is a timeless reference book.
The Dynamics of Architectural Form by Rudolf Arnheim is a great study on environmental psychology.
Also, Pattern Language if you're a complete masochist and really want to go DEEP into the subject.
I've got more if you're interested, but that should keep you busy for quite a while haha. Best of luck and I hope you find them as enjoyable as I have.
https://www.youtube.com/user/30by40/videos
https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Francis-D-K-Ching/dp/1118745086/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BR5C8TDB874XYYA4J6G0
https://www.amazon.com/Architect-Candid-Guide-Profession-Press/dp/0262518848/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510971784&sr=8-1&keywords=architect+a+candid+guide+to+the+profession
Let me know if you are looking for anything more specific!
The Geography of Nowhere
That's one of my favorites. Cultural geography is very broad so I don't know if there are any "essential" books, other than a textbook of course.
I disagree somewhat with that distinction. The reason I say this is that a few of the patterns in GoF where actually documented as idioms in Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms and recast as patterns. On the other hand, some purists argue that the GoF patterns are not even real patterns in the Alexandrian sense, therefore they would all be idioms.
So if you are sticking to the GoF definition of patterns, they aren't much more than idioms. If you look at the Alexandrian patterns, then I might agree with you. A good distinction would be to limit idioms to language specific solutions and real patterns to solutions that arise independent of the language. I edited my reply above to reflect this.
The Timeless Way of Building
This book, and the teachings of the author, is often cited as the inspiration for Design Patterns. I love this book. It's a great book on design in general, and reading it sheds light on how Design Patterns are best understood.
I'm somewhat skeptical about the "sprawl was planned" argument suggested here. There are plenty of decentralized cities all around the world, most more economically robust than the U.S. style of grid-city every 30-50 miles you see throughout the midwest. Take a look at a map of Germany and you'll be hard-pressed to find a vacant 100 square km.
As a city grows it envelops other cities, and it's easy to support development that fills in the vacant land between urban centers. That's very different from an official "plan" to create robust suburban dispersal.
Ironic, now -- cities may be the only way to create a decent sustainable future for humanity. Suburbs take too much energy to sustain. Read any work by J.B. Jackson or Geography of Nowhere by Kunstler to get a better sense of suburban hell.
They All Fall Down by Rich Cahan, about Richard Nickel's struggle to save classic Chicago buildings, particularly those by Louis Sullivan. The beginnings of the architectural preservation movement in Chicago. https://www.amazon.com/They-All-Fall-Down-Architecture/dp/0471144266
You could always check out A Pattern Language: http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construction-Environmental/dp/0195019199 or a Timeless Way of Building : http://www.amazon.com/The-Timeless-Building-Christopher-Alexander/dp/0195024028
Hello Brother
1.618 to 1....
I love the golden ratio, it is RAD! Here is a great book explaining with evidence how it runs through all nature, in biology, human anatomy, music and mathematics.
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Limits-Proportional-Harmonies-Architecture/dp/1590302591
another copy
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Limits-Proportional-Harmonies-Architecture/dp/B00CB5HD8E
reviewed here at goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1119085.The_Power_of_Limits
Francis D. K. Ching books would be a place to start.
D.K. Ching Books
I would suggest: Building Construction Illustrated and Architecture: Form, Space, and Order
Then maybe some more of his books as you are interested.
There is also a series of HomeDepot books: Plumbing 1-2-3 Wiring 1-2-3 etc that have lots of basic info: 1-2-3 Series
Feel free to ask if you are looking for anything more specific.
The books mentioned so far are great ones to start with. The Geography of Nowhere is also a good primer for the amateur; Kunstler's style is provocative and interesting to read.
I've always found good planning histories to be pretty accessible as well (for those interested in the subjects). Here are some recommendations that aren't the "main offenders" people normally reference:
Bourgeois Utopias is an interesting history of "suburbia", and the various forms "suburban development" has taken throughout history.
Sprawl by Robert Bruegeman is a good "contrast" to a lot of books about planning. His essential premises are that sprawl isn't bad, that underlies our economic growth, and that people want it.
This is a nice, concise book on the subject (as are most the Wooden Books imprint titles).
http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Geometry-Wooden-Books-Miranda/dp/0802713823/
This book is very nice & has clear overlays that show the geometry so you can go see the geometry in the design & then also see the design by itself - at least the 1st edition had that, I can only assume the 2nd edition keeps this feature.
http://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Design-Revised-Updated-Briefs/dp/1616890363
Very cool how much you want to support him.
The biggest misconception about the industry is probably how little math we actually use. There is of course a spectrum to our field that spans from sculptors and artists to programmers and engineers. By and large, however, we are visual people who hone our skills by practicing art. I was happily surprised in my first term of college to find out how much time we'd spend sketching and drafting. Hopefully that's appealing to him!
As far as what skills to learn: I took a CAD drafting class in high school that gave me a good head start in college. Sketchup is easy to pick up and I'd encourage him to get comfortable with Rhino to really be able to model digitally. I would not recommend Revit at this early stage as it's extremely technical. Physical modeling is also helpful. I grew up on Legos before moving to paper / cardstock / cardboard sketch modeling. Messy and fast and gives three-dimensional insight you can't get from a page or a screen, plus having the ability to make clean models is a great way to impress professors early on.
Regarding reading material. These books made an enormous impression on me:
I would highly recommend each and every one to him. All very approachable reading for a 14 year old already sketching commercial spaces.
And Bjark Ingel's Yes is More is a fun read in graphic novel form.
Lastly— reach out to your local AIA chapter. They can connect you and your brother with resources specific to your area including firms to check out / potentially shadow at, scholarships to apply for, and summer programs and other workshops to attend.
​
Best of luck to you both! It's quite a journey and a rewarding one if it fits.
I'm happy to talk more if you'd like to message me.
Note: links are to amazon though any library or used book will do.
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
On War by Von Clausewitz
Influence by Robert Cialdini
Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky
Improving Performance: How to Manage the Whitespace in the Organization Chart by Geary Rummler
Books by Edward T. Hall
Books by Edward Tufte
Books by Jiddu Krishnamurti
The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action by Donald Schön
let me know if you want more....
The Art of Game Design - Jesse Schell is very very good.
Game AI (Millington and Funge new edition iirc) is very very good.
Some non-game-design books that are very useful for those doing game design:
Scott McLoud: Making Comics (the other two in the series are good but the section on plot, characterization, and development in this one is great)
Donald Norman: The Design of Everyday Things. (How design works and how people interact with technology and...)
Christopher Alexander et al A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, and Construction (Thinking about scale and design elements and modularity and...)
Kevin Lynch: The Image of the City (How do urban spaces work - essential if your game is set in a city - how do people actually navigate)
Polti: The 36 Dramatic Situations (old, quirky, examines how there are really only a few human plots)
Matt Frederick: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (how to think about and execute simple art, improve your design sense, ...)
Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language isn't just the best book on architecture I've ever read, but one of the best books I've read on any subject. It talks about architecture on both its highest and most basic levels—from the design of cities to the location of window seats—and it's remarkably wise, lucid, and insightful. It reflects a very particular philosophy of architecture and urban planning, but it influenced my views on countless topics, and I think about it almost every day.
Senior Level Software Engineer Reading List
Read This First
Fundamentals
Development Theory
Philosophy of Programming
Mentality
Software Engineering Skill Sets
Design
History
Specialist Skills
DevOps Reading List
>did some research
If you have data on the economic and circulation-numbers state of community weekly newspapers in the U.S., please let me know. I'd love to read it.
I can only base my viewpoints on Pew's State of the News Media analysis on print news circulation, as well as generalized surveys and studies.
I have no doubt that print weeklies will survive for a while longer -- especially in some markets, like the rural midwest and in areas with a much older-than-average population base. But it's not an economically viable medium for transmitting news in the long term.
A book you should check out, when you get the chance, is David Mindich's Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News
>People still know they have to pay for my newspaper.
I'm sure that business model will last you well into the future.
>And web advertisement is worthless.
Yet somehow start-up online news sites and popular blogs have managed to make it work by developing new ways to metric ads, reach audiences for increased presence, and other ways of innovation. Interesting.
> get so tired of academics and people looking at the industry from on high saying print is dying.
Because by every available metric, print is dying. Please note here that "Print" means simply the publication of news using ink and paper. I am well aware that newspaper organizations do most of the original news production and reporting in the country. Which is why I highly support their turn to better online presences -- so they can reach the audience they want to reach, and we can all benefit from a properly informed society.
>Based on the big, national dailies you're trending an industry that includes weeklies, magazines, free papers on and on.
All of which are faltering, economicly, on the national scale.
I have nothing against your standpoint that community weeklies are important. They are where I got my start in journalism, where I did almost all of my professional work in journalism.
My problem comes at your dismissive approach toward blogging, self-reporting and entrepreneurial journalism. They are the nature of the modern market. They are how people get clips now, how people prove themselves, and how people cover a community and give voices to people in an era of failed print platforms.
It's a silly -- and frankly incorrect -- opinion to have toward the facts of a changing news audience and a changing news structure.
I'm lucky I'm the one teaching the journalists of the future.
There's a surprising amount of crossover between LA and psych. Here are some links:
A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William H Whyte (video)
Environmental Psychology
Travel to places that you like and journal/sketch about what you like, how it makes you feel to be in the space, take note of elements like lighting, seating, fountains/sculptures, and materials. Find out who designed the space and check out more of their work.
Call up a local LA firm that does similar work to the type you want to do, and ask for a tour of their office, shadow them in the field, or ask for an internship.
Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning
A Global History of Architecture
A Visual Dictionary of Architecture
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Bonus book because I like this firm's concepts:
Yes Is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution - Bjarke Ingels Group
Icons: Magnets of Meaning is a great book about iconic designs.
Also, Massive Change is a very good example of a book where the graphics are consistent throughout, even though dozens of contributors were involved. I also love the quote on the back cover: "Massive Change is not about the world of design, it's about the design of the world."
This will come off as snarky, but it isn't intended that way: Grab an architectural history book from your library.
This is a good and accessible text book:
http://www.amazon.com/Buildings-across-Time-Introduction-Architectural/dp/0767405110
This is a point that is discussed well in the book The Imperfect City: On Architectural Judgment. The book pulls apart this idea that architecture can represent politics and comes to the conclusion that we all already know. That such an idea is preposterous and is like blaming the color red when a bull charges you. Classical architecture cannot embody politics, which is why you always have differing political bodies utilizing the same architectural structures.
Three architecture books by Christopher Alexander:
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
The Timeless Way of Building
The Oregon Experiment
Post modernism has largely come and gone, however Complexity & Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi is excellent.
Also, Architecture without Architects....
and
Lessons for Students in Architecture
Well, the kitchen is pretty far from the garage, and through a lot of doors and a tiny room. This makes carrying groceries inside suck.
and, as many others have mentioned, the dining room is too far from the kitchen to be functional. Does anybody actually USE a formal dining room anymore? I'd suggest a flex-space addendum to the living room where a formal table can be set in the event of guests, but is normally a nice part of the living room or a usable space between the kitchen & living area.
Overall, it seems messy and inelegant.
If you don't want to scrap the design completely, I would suggest clustering the bedroom/office on the left behind the garage, making the entry central next to the garage, and positioning the kitchen, dining & living areas on the right side. I also like to cluster water-walls for ease of plumbing.
The mudroom is a wonderful idea, but it needs to be big enough to set down groceries, remove shoes & coats, put them away. Also a great place for a laundry/dog sink.
I am not understanding the "dressing" room. Do people dress outside of their bedrooms?
Personally, I'd start over.
I love reading this book for refining ideas.
check out A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. Great book for corralling up all the elements you'll want in a home. It's a collection of 'patterns' or elements that make Architecture work well for human life. A lot of great stuff that's often taken for granted, but very simple. And often cheap!
The nyTimes did a story on this fellow a while back- he's pioneered interior vertical garden walls. Very neat stuff.
http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com You might find some inspiration there.
good luck!
Apart from the landscape format, it sounds like Geometry of Design
You know, I don't really track such things on reddit so much, but the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) is sort of a hub for these things.
For years I didn't really have words or terms to go with my sentiment regarding our built environments, but reading first Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Death of the American Dream and then ["The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Environment] (https://www.amazon.com/Geography-Nowhere-Americas-Man-Made-Landscape/dp/0671888250) were wonderfully informative and encompassing on the topic.
Check out James Howard Kunstler's TED talk, you'll probably laugh and feel sad in equal parts.
It's incredible how wide reaching the effects are of our built environment, and in the United States, it's mostly negative.
I can't believe how expensive this book is nowadays, but this is an accessible way to expand his architectural horizons:
http://www.amazon.com/Buildings-across-Time-Introduction-Architecture/dp/0073379298
Design is best learned through doing and mentoring. Since he's not in a position to take a studio at the moment, he can post his work on here and we'll be happy to guide him.
I'm coming from a game design perspective rather than architect, so take this with a grain of salt, but I've been told (numerous times) to check out the work Christopher Alexander, particularly A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building.
I haven't read either one yet, but they are at the top of my "To Read" list.
The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler
I've probably read this book half a dozen times. A great summary of the problems with our car-centric built environment and how they came to be. Urban Planing and Development is a dry subject, but JHK has a good sense of humor in his writing and the book is an easy read.
( http://www.amazon.com/Geography-Nowhere-Americas-Man-Made-Landscape/dp/0671888250/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373057700&sr=1-1 - amazon link)
http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construction-Environmental/dp/0195019199
Get yourself a copy of this book and you'll be set to do it yourself.
I'm going to back track for you a bit, because I am not sure if you are aware of the larger context. When refering to Hypostyle halls, most often we are discussing the architecture of Egypt, Persia, etc., and those projects can be dated as far back as 1550 B.C. (New Kingdom, Egypt). Some examples of Hypostyle halls include the Temple of Amon at Karnak and The Temple of Abydos
Greek art & architecture was, without having to say, greatly influenced by art & architecture from Egypt. During the Classical & Hellenistic periods of Ancient Greece, you start to see this influence pop up in architecture, and hypostyle most often taking on the form of peristyle.
A quick note about the differences between peri & hypostyle: Both are colonnade construction around a central space. However Hypostyle construction used in Egypt was used primarily for religious purposes, whereas in Greece, peristyle was folded into common culture, and appeared frequently in the design/construction of the homes/villas of the wealthy. Additionally hypostyle halls tended to be enclosed within buildings, whereas peristyle were open air, constructed around courts, porches, etc.
As to your question, the oldest surviving examples of peristyle/hypostyle construction in Ancient Greece probably dates probably as far back as approx. 600 BC, and while peristyle is more common with the architecture of the Hellenistic Period, hypostyle continues to appear as well. You can see influences & usage of hypostyle throughout the period in many projects, including:
Other Resources:
Greek Architecture By Arnold Walter Lawrence
A Global History of Achitecture by Jarzombek & Prakash
Egyptian Influence on Ionic Architecture by Lucas Livingston
Reminiscences of Egypt in Doric Architecture by Allan Marquand
The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts
Vol. 6, No. 1/2 (Mar. - Jun., 1890), pp. 47-58
Great Architecture of the World by Julius Norwish
There is a dearth of architecture media that is geared towards non-architects. It's a serious problem for our profession.
Here are some good resources though to get started:
There is more, but this should keep you busy for a little while at least.
"Pedestrian oriented neighbourhoods" are likely to have a lot of utility & are likely to undo a lot of the damage Automobiles have done to the urban environment as described in 'the Geography of Nowhere'. Particularly as they can afford automotive mobility to people who can't today drive on their own (elderly, children).
I don't think we'll get banning of manual vehicles, at least not quickly. There'll likely be a quickly rising standard of expected driving competence though. There's a 'pareto principle' in effect with car accidents, 20% of the drivers on the roads today cause about 80% of the accidents. When people have to drive to get to work, we let it go quite a bit. In the future, we're not gonna let that fly. Those people who still want to drive (& can drive) are still going to get there quicker than they did before, even with an expectation for them to give way to pedestrians, because most traffic is caused not by the limitations of the roads but by bad driving.
I'm already 13 years in AAA games industry. I went through the answers and I agree that Level Design books are not really great if you want to create something more than a tiny indie game. If you want to learn from the "sources", I highly recommend you:
- Environmental Psychology - You can skip parts about noise but perception and decision making in space is a crucial knowledge in Level Design.
- Architecture: Form, Space and Order - This book tells you all about how space is made and how it affects people.
This is a great start. When you'll be done with these books, come back for more ;)
a global history of architecture is the best I can do. architecture websites thrive on republishing promotional photography and don't really carry the kind of weight your question suggests. I believe you need a book.
I'm surprised no one as mentioned this book yet; VERY good read on this subject...
"The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Geography-Nowhere-Americas-Landscape/dp/0671888250/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333474570&sr=8-1
Lost Chicago is a good book. It looks like you can get the hardcover for 98 cents! (Probably $28 shipping cost)
I'm going to assume you have this book, or have seen it, but if not, its a must have. Lost Chicago
A Pattern Language. This is my all-time favorite book on design and how we interact with our surroundings:
http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construction-Environmental/dp/0195019199/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369950438&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=A+Pattern+Lnaguage
Found it:
Geometry of Design, Revised and Updated (Design Briefs) Elam, Ki... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1616890363/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdo_t1_C4GcBb5B5X288
Handy little book on grid systems.
There is this wonderful book about design:
https://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Way-Building-Christopher-Alexander/dp/0195024028
We use Buildings Across Time by Moffett in my architecture history class. I found it on Amazon for about $6 with shipping. It has all you need starting with Mesopotamia and ending with Frank Gehry.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0767405110/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used
Coming back to this, I found my collection of research bookmarks...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circulation_(architecture)
http://portico.space/architecture-concepts
http://portico.space/journal//architectural-concepts-circulation
https://www.pinterest.nz/portico_/concepts-circulation/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095263514000375 <-- This one is promising
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_plan
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195019199/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
and
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195024028/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1 are the origins of software design patterns, but talk about physical architecture. There is a lot of good information in these books.
The political and marketing influence of the car industry played a huge part, but it's as much a cultural and urban planning thing as it is industry driven. Entire cities are built around catering to people in cars... there are vast swathes of strip malls and supercenters where there aren't even sidewalks but there are huge multi-story parking garages. Cities are zoned to have most of the population separated from areas where they participate in commerce... our entire life has become decentralized and auto-focused. Public railways serve a very small niche when both endpoints are, by design, far-removed from anything you'd want to explore. By contrast, in places in Europe and Asia, you get off the train and onto the bus or subway, and the bus stop or subway station is smack dab in the middle of shopping and business, and business is much more local.
A couple interesting books on this topic are Fighting Traffic (Peter Norton), Geography of Nowhere (James Kunstler) and Asphalt Nation (Jane Holtz Kay), worth a read if you're really interested in the topic.
I'd like to recommend another book, with a more psychologically oriented approach to urban and architectural design: A Pattern Language
http://www.amazon.com/Chambers-Memory-Palace-Donlyn-Lyndon/dp/0262621053/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1310663142&amp;sr=8-1
I really can't recommend this book enough. It's filled with tons of wonderful sketches and very insightful commentary between two architects about how they and their predecessors create(d) buildings, and it isn't written in archispeak which makes it easily understood by non-architects.
I'm currently in graduate school. Most of the textbooks I bought were for my technical classes like environmental technology or structures. I have used:
Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius. I used this in my theory class. It's a pretty neat book that offers classic principles of architecture.
The Ethical Function of Architecture This is another theory book that offers more contemporary architectural issues. I'm not the biggest fan of theoretical readings but it's not too bad.
Building Construction Illustrated by Francis Ching
Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings
Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods
101 Things I Learned in Architecture School This is one I think every architecture student should own. Its very small and simple.
Read the book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. It is actually a book for architecture, but you can use allot of it in game design. Another good book is Level design in games by Phil Co.
I recommend reading The Geography of Nowhere. The book has its ups and downs and its points and non-points but I think it gets to the heart of what you are asking.
Do you know if he'll actually be drafting by hand? A lot of schools are all digital now.
As an alternative, here's a set of items I would have loved to receive as a freshman in architecture school:
https://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Learned-Architecture-School/dp/0262062666/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1539622984&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=101+things+i+learned+in+architecture+school&amp;dpID=51ktCo7dHTL&amp;preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&amp;dpSrc=srch
https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Francis-D-K-Ching/dp/1118745086/ref=pd_sim_14_10?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=1118745086&amp;pd_rd_r=31750c2b-d09c-11e8-a1fa-3b320cf86cd1&amp;pd_rd_w=uX57r&amp;pd_rd_wg=F1H8M&amp;pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&amp;pf_rd_r=YP0989T1CKSAE842J6N0&amp;pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&amp;pf_rd_t=40701&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=YP0989T1CKSAE842J6N0
https://www.amazon.com/Sakura-Pigma-30062-Micron-Blister/dp/B0008G8G8Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1539623052&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=micron+pen+set&amp;dpID=51bMxXKP9NL&amp;preST=_SY300_QL70_&amp;dpSrc=srch
and a nice sketchbook. I'm a fan of the dot grid ones. The Frank Ching books are invaluable. I wish I still had my entire collection.
Palladio - The Four Books of Architecture
Vitruvius - the Ten Books of Architecture
da Vignola - Canon of the Five Orders of Architecture
Serlio - on Architecture, Volume 1,2
A Pattern Language
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195019199/?tag=googhydr-20&amp;hvadid=43848937162&amp;hvpos=1t1&amp;hvexid=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=16665708471552453648&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=b&amp;hvdev=c&amp;ref=pd_sl_1tl3jngmex_b
Looks like there are two books named "Why Architecture Matters", one by Paul Goldberger and one by Blair Kamin. Which one were you referring to?
This isn't guitar specific, but maybe something like this would be of interest to you: https://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Experience-Harmony-Natural-Expression/dp/0892815604 (Though it does cover just intonation extensively, and while that's something I find very interesting, it's not really directly applicable to guitar, except as a way of understanding equal temperament.)
The music book that I wish someone would write is to take the general idea and structure of this amazing book: https://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construction-Environmental/dp/0195019199, and apply it to music instead of architecture.
Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language
Christopher Alexander is it! The Timeless Way Of Building was the book I was looking for but you got me headed in the right direction. Thanks!
first book i had to read in architecture school was
"chambers for a memory palace"
http://www.amazon.com/Chambers-Memory-Palace-Donlyn-Lyndon/dp/0262621053
its a great introduction to design and spatial description
also Simon Unwin has a book called "Analysing Architecture" that is pretty standard in schools as well as a book called "20 buildings every architect should understand" that has some pretty iconic buildings in it.
I've been to a lecture of his and he is an amazing speaker and writer.
https://www.amazon.com/Buildings-Across-Time-Introduction-Architecture/dp/0073379298
A real home is not just about the elevations or what it looks like.
I suggest reading something like Christophers Alexanders A Pattern Language
One of the 20th century's most pernicious influences on the arts. Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House does a nice job of dispatching him and his ilk: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312429142
For God's sake, look what he wanted to do to Paris: http://rosswolfe.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/tumblr_m7l8v8djk91qln4yro1_1280.jpg
Just graduated with a master's in planning (in Canada). The first thing you should know is that you cannot go into this field for the money or for great job prospects. Getting a job right out of school is extremely difficult in both the US and Canada right now unless you have the right prior experience and skills (which school will not give you). Many people take unpaid internships (which is disgusting on the part of employers in my opinion) or have a long wait ahead of them for an entry-level job.
So if you do pursue planning for grad school make sure you are in no financial difficulties and that you have a backup plan or money to spare in case.
There is also a difference between what skills jobs want and what you'll learn in planning school. Planning school will focus heavily on "issues" in urban planning (social science, econ, history, etc). So you'll be writing term papers just like you are now in poli sci. You'll also learn a bit about planning law and the planning system but not nearly enough of what jobs want. And lastly, planners need to know some software, but this greatly depends on what type of job you have. Some typical programs include ArcGIS, AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator/Indesign.
Learning about the urban issues part of planning is not too difficult in comparison and there are a lot of great books.
The best one's I've read so far are also the books that are best to introduce anyone to the major issues in planning:
If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer!
I'd recommend taking this book out from the library:
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Chicago-David-Garrard-Lowe/dp/0226494322
its just incredibly sad the history and beauty we've thrown in the garbage
The geography of nowhere.
A Pattern Language
It makes basic considerations of design approachable and practical. I don't agree with everything in the book but the way they do it and the breadth of their study is admirable.
Edit: not World Change
Massive Change
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0714844012?pc_redir=1411127168&amp;robot_redir=1
Geometry of Design.
A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. It's not a programming book; it's not an art/design book per se. But if you read it, and you grok it, it may change the way you think about code (and design).