For an Architecture of Reality

By Michael Benedikt

Book Overview

Michael Benedikt teaches, practices architecture, and writes in Austin, where he is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas. His second book, Deconstructing the Kimbell (0-930829-16-6), is also published by Lumen. "Benedikt has written a bold theoretical essay, with stirring cultural implications, that argues to restore the missing sense of reality to architecture and insists on 'the direct esthetic experience of the real.' . . . a timely manifesto. Thought-provoking and eminently quotable, it succeeds admirably in what it sets out to do: to recall architecture, and not only architecture, to those all but mute meanings so often passed over and yet inseparable from our everyday existence. - Karsten Harries "This book will still be useful when this year's round arches have all been remodeled (isn't it inevitable?) into pointed. And because it is so vividly -and thoughtfully - written, it will still be a pleasure to read." - Charles Moore "Every literate architect should take an afternoon off to read and ponder this brief and thoughtful and thoroughly engaging book. . . . Benedikt says more about some central aesthetic and philosophical issues confronting contemporary architecture than many celebrated pundits manage to squeeze into a shelfful of books. . . . He offers a straightforward account of his own struggle to understand the pleasures and responsibilities of architecture in an age when aesthetic pleasure is all but indiscernible from entertainment, and responsibility is often a cover for thoughtless conformity." - Roger Kimball, Architectural Record "Benedikt marches bravely into the philosophical thicket to find a working definition of reality. . . . In his sensibilities, he is quite transcendental, much like a Thoreau or an Emerson in a hotel lobby of potted ficus trees." - Howard Mansfield, Small Press ". . . the book of the decade in Texas architectural circles. . . " - Texas Architect This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0930829050
• ISBN13: 9780930829056
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Lumen Books
• Length: 74 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Very important

I'm in the middle of an M.ARCH degree right now and this book has been the most influential thing I've read so far. It reminds me why I'm in school and what I'm supposed to be learning how to do. You can make sexy images and wonderful compositions that pretend to be sections and plans, or, you can think about the actual presence of the building. It's the difference between Hadid's work - which is incredibly beautiful on paper...

Excellent

I was required to read this book for a design class but I would recomend it to anyone who is interested in architecture or even life for that matter. This book makes you take a second look at things, not necessarily buildings, that you would normally just pass by. Great short read that is definitely not short on great ideas.

Antidote for the times

This is a delightful little book (nevertheless with large ideas) and a marvelous counter to the excesses of our times. It focuses on the direct physical experience of buildings, and is written in surprisingly clear, even poetic, English. It returns our attention to fundamentals that, in this gas-powered, electronic, digital age, we too easily forget.

Benedikt captures the true essence of seeing architecture.

Benedikt teaches the reader to stop looking at architecture and actually see it. He brings forth a solid comfort in what can be thought of as the way architecture should be. Not only is it inspiring with every turn of each page, it gives the reader an afresh way of thinking like none other before.

An elegant exposition on the possibilities of architecture

Without a doubt, one of the most elegant contemporary arguments about the strength and possibilities of architecture. If every architect thought about this small book, we'd live in a fundamentally different environment. Highly recommended.