eBook

Fit

Geddes, Robert

2012,2015,2013

Overview

Fitis a book about architecture and society that seeks to fundamentally change how architects and the public think about the task of design. Distinguished architect and urbanist Robert Geddes argues that buildings, landscapes, and cities should be designed to fit: fit the purpose, fit the place, fit future possibilities. Fit replaces old paradigms, such as form follows function, and less is more, by recognizing that the relationship between architecture and society is a true dialogue--dynamic, complex, and, if carried out with knowledge and skill, richly rewarding. With a tip of the hat to John Dewey,Fitexplores architecture as we experience it. Geddes starts with questions: Why do we design where we live and work? Why do we not just live in nature, or in chaos? Why does society care about architecture? Why does it really matter?Fitanswers these questions through a fresh examination of the basic purposes and elements of architecture--beginning in nature, combining function and expression, and leaving a legacy of form. Lively, charming, and gently persuasive, the book shows brilliant examples of fit: from Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia and Louis Kahn's Exeter Library to contemporary triumphs such as the Apple Store on New York's Fifth Avenue, Chicago's Millennium Park, and Seattle's Pike Place. Fitis a book for everyone, because we all live in constructions--buildings, landscapes, and, increasingly, cities. It provokes architects and planners, humanists and scientists, civic leaders and citizens to reconsider what is at stake in architecture--and why it delights us.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: Alan Ryan / AMA / AMG / Architect / Architectural style / ARCHITECTURE / Architecture & Architectural History / ARCHITECTURE / General / ARCHITECTURE / Individual Architects & Firms / General / Architecture and Architectural History / Art for art's sake / Art Nouveau / Bryant Park / Buildings / Cemetery / City Beautiful movement / Civil engineering / Civil society / Classical architecture / Cloister / Criticism / Daniel Burnham / De architectura / Design / Designer / English landscape garden / Entryway / Environmental determinism / Fallingwater / Frank Lloyd Wright / French landscape garden / Garden design / Gothic architecture / Hearth / Home improvement / Housing in Japan / Industrial district / Industrial society / International Style (architecture) / Jane Jacobs / Landscape / Landscape architect / Landscape design / Le Corbusier / Leon Battista Alberti / Lighting / Llewellyn Park / Louis Kahn / Louis Sullivan / Modern architecture / Monadnock Building / Nathan Glazer / Palazzo Pubblico (San Marino) / Palladian architecture / Palmer Square / Phillips Exeter Academy Library / Philosophy / Porch / Post-structuralism / Princeton University Press / Proportion (architecture) / Public Land Survey System / Public, Commercial & Industrial / Renaissance architecture / Requirement / Rockefeller Center / Seagram Building / Sense of Place / Social Science / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban / Sociology / St. Patrick's Cathedral (Manhattan) / Suburb / United States Capitol / University of Virginia / Urban / Urban planning / Usonia / Vitruvius / Wainwright Building / Wilshire Boulevard / Woolworth Building / World's Columbian Exposition
• ISBN: 1400844541, 9781400844548, 9780691155753, 0691155755