Synopsis
Guiding readers through a staggering 5,000 years of world architecture, Jonathan Glancey's eminently knowledgeable, authoritative, and always fascinating insights make reading this book irresistible, despite the enormity of the subject. Featuring influential and innovative architects of every age, along with their masterpieces, from the ziggurat at Ur to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, this stylish, lavishly illustrated book shows the unique historical, geographical, and cultural elements that have influenced and literally shaped the world's greatest architecture.
Library Journal
Glancey conducts a whirlwind tour of the history of world architecture, DK-style. Anyone would be hard-pressed to squeeze a thorough overview of so vast a topic into the confines of 240 visually hyperactive pages, but Glancey, architecture/design editor for the Guardian, follows his strengths as a perspicacious observer of the current architectural scene. Devoting nearly half the text to the modern period, he condenses history's panorama into a series of colorful vignettes, each described as having some contemporary relevance. Driven by a contagious enthusiasm, the narrative is enlivened by chatty, sometimes offbeat commentary. Very much a product of our nonlinear, multitasking era, this book will engage the casual browser but is not in the same league as solid, comprehensive surveys such as Spiro Kostof's A History of Architecture (Oxford Univ.,1995. 2d ed.), David Watkin's A History of Western Architecture (Laurence King, 1996. 2d ed.), or Sir Banister Fletcher's magisterial A History of Architecture (Architectural Pr., 1996. 20th ed.). Appropriate for public library and school media center collections.--David Solt sz, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.