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Summary
Summary
Why Architecture Matters is not a work of architectural history or a guide to the styles or an architectural dictionary, though it contains elements of all three. The purpose of Why Architecture Matters is to "come to grips with how things feel to us when we stand before them, with how architecture affects us emotionally as well as intellectually"--with its impact on our lives. "Architecture begins to matter," writes Paul Goldberger, "when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads." He shows us how that works in examples ranging from a small Cape Cod cottage to the "vast, flowing" Prairie houses of Frank Lloyd Wright, from the Lincoln Memorial to the highly sculptural Guggenheim Bilbao and the Church of Sant'Ivo in Rome, where "simple geometries . . . create a work of architecture that embraces the deepest complexities of human imagination."
Based on decades of looking at buildings and thinking about how we experience them, the distinguished critic raises our awareness of fundamental things like proportion, scale, space, texture, materials, shapes, light, and memory. Upon completing this remarkable architectural journey, readers will enjoy a wonderfully rewarding new way of seeing and experiencing every aspect of the built world.
Author Notes
Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Paul Goldberger is the architectural critic and a staff writer at The New Yorker.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
With a broad topic and a deep reach, this collection of work from New Yorker architecture critic Goldberger reflects on the meanings and effects of architecture, both in the abstract and in everyday life. From specific places like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. ("may be one of the few great architectural works anywhere whose approach is marked only by directional signs, not by a glimpse of the thing itself") to discussion of individual architects (Saarinesen, Lloyd Wright, etc.), Goldberger is clear and direct throughout, occasionally addressing readers directly with questions and thought experiments ("For the next few pages . think only in terms of what a building looks like when you stand before it") that help recreate the architectural thought process. Sometimes focused too narrowly on the author's own experience (breathlessly recounted memories of architectural epiphany can fall flat), Goldberger occasionally risks alienating readers who lack his enthusiasm. For students and fans of architecture, however, this makes an elegant but energetic tour of building design, aesthetics, construction and inspiration that should encourage new ways of viewing one's surroundings. 55 b & w illustrations. (Dec.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Choice Review
Focusing on Western architecture from the vernacular through monuments past and present, Goldberger (architectural critic, The New Yorker) considers his emotional and intellectual reactions to buildings and the uniqueness of the architectural experience: "Good intentions ... serious ideas ... inspire the creation of built form," and architecture "makes life better." The author looks at the social character of buildings and their forms and symbols, and considers the contexts of buildings with their sense of place. Drawing on many writers' works, from ancient to modern, he offers strong challenging opinions with his judgments and emotional responses to buildings. The book features wonderful descriptions of both buildings and sites. A particularly good chapter on memory in architecture looks at the author's personal memories and those evident in society, film, art, photography, and literature. Goldberger also considers the concept of time in architecture and is particularly insightful on historic preservation in New York City. The text includes an eclectic selection of small black-and-white pictures. This volume also features a glossary and "A note on bibliography," which examines Goldberger's favorite sources. Nontechnical in nature, it will be very useful for architecture and architectural history students as a noteworthy introduction to understanding buildings. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers. W. L. Whitwell formerly, Hollins College
Library Journal Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Goldberger has long been recognized by readers of the New York Times and The New Yorker as an architecture critic on a par with venerated peers like Ada Louise Huxtable and Lewis Mumford. With many books to his credit-most recently an incisive take on Ground Zero doings in Manhattan, Up from Zero: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York-Goldberger sums up a lifetime of musings on things architectural with picturesque essays concerning the way the built environment affects the quality of our daily lives. Owing to telling autobiographical insights incorporated into the narrative, we see how this most diplomatic of observers finds merit in the classicists and preservationists of the last two centuries, as well as in avant-garde innovators such as Corbusier and Frank Gehry. Verdict Although a bias for the East Coast can be detected, Goldberger's trenchant and deftly communicated insights retain a universal validity. These meditations will entrance and enlighten anyone curious about why the buildings around us affect us as they do.-David Soltesz, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
