Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture

by Witold Rybczynski

Book Overview

From the opening sentences of his first book on architecture, Home, Witold Rybczynski seduced readers into a new appreciation of the spaces they live in. He also introduced us to "an unerringly lucid writer who knows how to translate architectural ideas into layman's terms" (The Dallas Morning News). Rybczynski's vast knowledge, his sense of wonder, and his elegantly uncluttered prose shine on every page of his latest meditation on the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140168893
• ISBN13: 9780140168891
• Release Date: December 1993
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Accessible Essays on Architecture

I am a big fan of architecture critic Witold Rybczynski. If you haven't read his books HOME, or WAITING FOR THE WEEKEND, or CITY LIFE, this book is a good way to get familiar with many of the themes he has addressed time and again over his long and prolific career (e.g., the place of houses in people's lives, living smaller, the role of architects, the legacy of modernism, the place and meaning of ornament, the intrusion of fashion into the world of architecture, and the importance of the Vitruvian values of commodity, firmness and beauty in identifying "good" architecture). Many of these pieces were previously published in magazines and journals. Some are more thoughtful, well-researched, and even polemical; others read like Sunday magazine fluff pieces (not too many of these, though). Like many of Rybczynski's books, there are no illustrations. If you're like me, you'll find youself going to the Internet often to get images of some of the buildings, places, and people he mentions. It slows down the reading, but is necessary, it seems, to get the full impact of what Rybczynski is saying.

Affirming the Traditional

Planning on building a house, I was especially interested in Rybczynski's thoughts and insights about homes and what they should look like. From the start I was captivated. Wanting to be sleek and modern, I thought an architect would quickly confirm my ideas. Instead, at the start of the book Rybczynski, with reasoning, brings the reader back to the traditional home and approves of it; and makes me want to build one... and live in a lovely little neighborhood. He moves beyond the house and Looking Around takes us into the cities and towns to look at public buildings like art museums. The history and progression that he packs into this book is very insightful. He says, "I am not arguing for a historical style as much as for a historical attitude- deja-vu, as opposed to avant-garde. An awareness of history- of the successes and failures of the past should inform architectural design to a greater degree than it now does."

This is an incredible book

This is an incredible book and I recommend it to anyone, whatever field you are in, you live in this world and may as well enjoy it.

A guided tour with a view

Here is an unusual book: Witold Rybczynski takes us wandering through the professional byways of a subject usually reserved for a more intellectual readership, if such a thing exists. Why architecture is important and what makes it so is the subject matter here, brought to us by a very competent writer. Delightfully so, in fact, as Rybczynski has the storyteller's ability to weft and weave. The stories he has chosen here are a mixed bunch and we are asked to think about such diverse constructions as the American bungalow, the Grow Home and public buildings like the Canadian Centre for Architecture. He has stories to tell about all of them, the people who live in or use them and the odd trends which are sometimes responsible for a particular design. As he points out, although we use architecture every day of our lives and are clearly affected by it (whether we know it or not), we are more than prone to take it for granted. Should we not be more aware of what's around us, in general? This book offers up some thoughtful ideas on the subject.

Good reading

This is an easy reader.I bought this book a long time ago, but never had the time to open it, then one day I was looking for a magazine to read in, you know, those intimate moments, and in the rush I grabed 'looking around'. Fact is: I couldn't stop reading it. Even tough I am not what you'd call a lay-man on architectural issues, Witold's book really made me see that's possible to write about architecture without being too academic or technical. I can say that I've learned a great deal, not only about architecture, but about life. my advice? buy it now!