Elements of architecture : from form to place + tectonics / Pierre von Meiss, new translation reworked with revisions and additional content, translated from the French by Theo Hackola.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Meiss, Pierre von, 1938- author.

Contributor:

Hakola, Theo, 1954- translator.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architectural design.

Architecture--History.

Architecture.

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 383 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Lausanne,Switzerland EPFL, [2013]

Contents:

Includes bibliographical references.

Machine generated contents note: First Part Elements of Architecture: From Form to Place

1.Phenomena of perception

The pleasure of looking at, listening to, feeling, touching and moving through architecture

Seeing

Listening

Scent

Touching

The body in motion

Seeing and perceiving

Laws of vision

The eye is not innocent

The sphere and the rose

2.Order and disorder

Inevitable order

Order in construction

The sense of order

Factors of coherence

Repetition and resemblance

Proximity

Enclosure or common background

Orientation of elements: parallelism or convergence towards a void or a solid

From order to chaos

Homogeneity and texture

Alignments and series

Gradation

Hierarchy

Contrast

Complexity

Contradiction

Chaos

Interaction of factors

Regularity and irregularity

Simplicity

Regularity

Exception to the rule

Order in disorder and vice versa

3.Measure and balance

Contents note continued: Spaces on a human scale

The notion of scale

Anthropomorphism and architecture

The fascination of number and proportions

Commensurate proportions

Incommensurate proportions

Proportions in difficulty

Balance

Symmetry

Asymmetrical balance

4.Fabric and object

City and monuments

Composition of the object: articulation and continuity

Articulation

Continuity

The object: faces, corners, relationship to ground and sky

Positive articulation: corner in relief, plinth and cornice

Negative articulation: the recessed joint

The sharp edge

The fusion of faces

First Interlude: From object to space

Spatiality of objects

Relationships between objects

5.Space

Elements of spatial definition

Depth of space

Density of space

Opening of space

Spatial juxtaposition and interpenetration

Spatial characteristics of elementary shapes

Composing: Wright and the Froebel blocks

Contents note continued: Composing: Le Corbusier and the 4 Compositions (1929)

Composing verticality

Three strategies for spatial composition

Structure-space

The "Raumplan"

The "free plan"

Floor, wall and ceiling

6.Light and shade

Light comes to us from things

Quantity and quality

Light and space

Windows all over the place

Half-light and shadows

The challenge of lighting in five points

Second Interlude: From space to place

7.Places

The landscape

a great challenge

Site and place

Limits, thresholds and spaces of transition

Place as an identity-support

Dynamics of path

Third Interlude: Cosmic, Territorial and Temporal Orientation

pt. Two Tectonics

8.Making materials sing

Form and material

Stone

Reinforced concrete

Brick

Wood

Glass

From metals to carbon

9.Aesthetic of gravity

Obvious solidity

Stability and elegant performance

Imbalance re-balanced

Lateral thrust

Contents note continued: Technology and modernity

Fact or fiction?

Technology displayed

Technology extolled

Fragile technology

Falsified" technology

Technology as a service

Technology domesticated (tamed)

10.Body and cladding

The issues

Texture, bonding and modenature

Thicknesses

Face or mask?

Rough-and-raw or skin?

Tracing the skeleton versus autonomy

Textile inspired cladding

From "High-Tech expressionism" to the "mystery of the veil"

The facade as a complex "machine"

Epilogue

Annex

Annex 1 Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal / Robert Slutzky

Annex 2 Architecture Against the City / Bernard Huet

Annex 3 The Landscape Alternative / Sebastien Marot.

ISBN:

0415831253

9780415831253

OCLC:

870795912