 |
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: Not exactly what it seems
The book has excellent intentions and addresses a very important and neglected issue in architecture. The topic discusses the predominance of mind/visual based designs that end up being projects of artistic self expressions on the part of its sponsors. The author challenges
this bias to make us aware that buildings also need to relate to us not only visually to also all of our human senses. The writing is clear and simple but still academic in flavor. While this is a much needed message I gave only 3 stars because of the following observation. I thought the overall concept was excellent but I did not think the application of the concept was very successful once I looked at the work of the architects being referenced. The author quotes many architects whose work he believes touches all of our senses and are therefore assumed to be less visual and cerebral. My reaction was these architects are doing non-cerebral but from an intellectual place. As a result while their buildings are richer and more interesting to our senses they are nevertheless still very conceptual and dissociative. In other words we still end up with designs that while promoting a fuller sensory experience are still very mental. For me that's the weakness with this book at least based on the specific architects referenced.
|
2: Inspiring lecture
I enjoyed a lot reading this book. it is a traditional but essential book to have for any architecture lover.
|
3: Where the f#*k is it!!!
I shouldn't really be so harsh because I was starting to forget about it has been so long. To be honest your service has been pretty good up till now but this time its a joke I been searching around the neighbourhood and no one has heard of it, I have email and ask if you know where it is and you said it was sent. I have paid for it so I should have it.
Please I do understand this can happen occassionally, but please rectify this ASAP
Thanks, otherwise this is a possitive review...
|
4: what has been lost in architecture and why it should be back
During my 15 years of architectural education and some years of practice (both as architect and as 'explainer' of architecture) I have not yet encountered a book on architecture which has changed my view on architecture so dramatically.
Juhani Pallasmaa's book makes an excelent argument for retrieving in architecture that which seems to have been lost for a long time: the lived intelligence of the bodilly senses. In his book Pallasmaa gives an overview of the development of the occularcentrism which is dominating architecture (and pretty much every cultural aspect) in the Western world for centuries and goes on to show how this leads to an impoverment of the architectural experience (and with that the impoverment of our daily lifes).
The mix of theory, practice and convincing examples (ranging from architecture, art, cinema to literature and poetry together with the size (80 pages) makes the book easily readable, even for the less theoretical inclined reader. My advice: read it!
For those of you who are as impressed with this book as I am: there's another book by Pallasmaa with the title 'Encounters'(published by Rakennustieto Oy Rati, June 2005). This book features a collection of essay's which were written by the author over the last 20 years. This book is also about the phenomenology of architecture but, due to its size (app. 350 pages), gives a broader overview of the thinking and writing of Juhani Pallasmaa. It seems it is not available at Amazon but I hope they will put is on there list soon!
|
5: A Must-Read
In five years of Architectural Design, I am hard-pressed to find a book that has made such an impact on my thinking and overall awareness of architecture. This is truly a must-read for any architecture student, and is extremely interesting for those non-architects out there. I highly encourage the investment.
|
|
|
