Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture

Book Overview

Essays on the changing relationship of the human body and architecture.

Since Greek antiquity, the human body has been regarded as a microcosm of universal harmony. In this book, an international group of architects, architectural historians, and theorists examines the relation of the human body and architecture. The essays view well-known buildings, texts, paintings, ornaments, and landscapes from the perspective of the body's physical, psychological, and spiritual needs and pleasures. Topics include Greek temples; the churches of Tadao Ando in Japan; Renaissance fortresses and paintings; the body, space, and dwelling in Wright's and Schindler's houses in North America; the corporeal dimension of Carlo Scarpa's landscapes and gardens; theory from Vitruvius to the Renaissance and Enlightenment; and Freudian psychoanalysis. The essays are framed by an appreciation of architectural historian and theorist Joseph Rykwert's influential work on the subject.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262541831
• ISBN13: 9780262541831
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 428 Pages
• Weight: 2.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.0" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Architect's Journal List of Books of the Year

Architects' Journal 19/12/2002, Pages: 44,45 BOOKS OF THE YEARCOMPILED BY ANDREW MEAD Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture Edited by George Dodds.MIT Press, £37.95, ranked 6th of a selection of 30 titles that AJ reviewers have most enjoyed during the past 12 months

Body beautiful

from Architects' Journal 25/07/2002Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture Edited by George Dodds and Robert Tavernor.MIT Press, 2002. 427pp. ?37.95This weighty volume, based on a conference six years ago celebrating Joseph Rykwert's 70th birthday, is far more than a congratulatory festschrift. Between its front and back biographical wrappings are fascinating essays of lasting interest, to which a short review cannot do justice....As Rykwert has concluded elsewhere:'History can never teach us. But we may learn from it.' This book is an education.