How to Judge Architecture: A Popular Guide to the Appreciation of Buildings

Sturgis, Russell, 1836-1909Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
241K words
Chapters
25

Tags

English Originals Architecture Humanistic CareCuriosityWestern ThoughtIllustrated GuidePractical GuideTraditional Aesthetics

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.How to judge architecture: a popular guide to the appreciation of buildingsAuthor: Sturgis, Russell, 1836-1909,Language: English, Class: NA: Fine Arts: Architecture, Release Date: Jan 10, 2015

Editor's review

Russell Sturgis's guide to architecture appreciation centers on the question of how to judge whether a building is good or bad. Aimed at general readers rather than professional architects, it seeks to turn formal analysis into a learnable method of looking. Approaching through proportion, structure, materials, details, and their relation to the whole, the book leads readers to ask concrete questions when looking at buildings rather than stopping at the intuitive verdict of “attractive” or “unattractive.” Its value lies in offering a plain yet systematic framework for observation; the language is straightforward, the examples are drawn from buildings of everyday experience, and it serves well as an introduction to architectural taste. As a public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, it is easy to search and excerpt; note, however, that the original was written long ago, and its cases and aesthetic standards bear the marks of their time, with limited discussion of modernism and contemporary architecture. It suits reading before and after visits to historic buildings, or as supplementary material for general-education courses in architecture, helping readers move from casual looking to informed seeing.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the introduction or opening chapters first to grasp the observational dimensions the author proposes, then move on to the cases
  2. Before visiting a building, read the relevant chapters and compare proportion, materials, and details on site
  3. After each chapter, analyze a familiar building nearby using the author's method and record your conclusions
  4. The original is an English public-domain book; use architectural images and a glossary of terms to aid understanding

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25

FAQ

Can I understand it without any background in architecture? Yes. The book is positioned as an appreciation guide for the general public and deliberately avoids abstruse professional calculations, focusing instead on how to observe and what to ask. Readers need only basic patience in reading and a willingness to linger and compare when looking at buildings to follow the author's thinking.
Are the cases in the book suitable for Chinese readers? The cases are mostly drawn from the Western architectural tradition familiar to the author and differ from what Chinese readers see every day. Yet the observational methods the book proposes—proportion, structure, materials, and detail—are universal, and readers can transfer them to local historic buildings or urban districts.
Can this book replace a textbook on architectural history? No. It is a guide to methods of appreciation, not a systematic textbook of architectural history: it neither surveys architectural development chronologically nor covers representative works of every period. It is better used as a supplementary reader for studying architectural history, helping readers turn historical knowledge into the ability to see on site.

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About the author

Sturgis, Russell, 1836-1909 Author · American · 1836–1909

Russell Sturgis (1836–1909) was an American architect and architectural writer. Public information on his early education and professional practice is limited; what can be confirmed is that he devoted himself for many years to architectural writing and editing and served as editor-in-chief of the Dictionary of Architecture and Building, a reference work that circulated widely in English-language architectural circles. The library holds his work How to Judge Architecture: A Popular Guide to the Appreciation of Buildings, an introductory guide for general readers on how to observe and evaluate buildings. Rather than piling up technical jargon, the book leads readers to understand architecture through structure, form, and style, reflecting the author's aim of popularizing architectural knowledge and offering ordinary readers a way into the appreciation of architecture.