"Owning a home is a cornerstone of the American Dream, the ultimate status symbol in the land of the free. But is the dream in crisis? Mass-marketed and endlessly multiplied, the suburban single-family house has become an instrument of global economic calamity and ongoing environmental catastrophe. Never before have we been so badly in need of a reassessment of our cultural values from an architectural perspective."--Back cover.
Fascination with ancient Egypt is a recurring theme in Western culture, and here Brian Curran uncovers its deep roots in the Italian Renaissance, which embraced not only classical art and literature but also a variety of other cultures that modern readers don't tend to associate with early modern Italy. Patrons, artists, and spectators of the period were particularly drawn, Curran shows, to Egyptian antiquity and its artifacts, many of which found their way to Italy in Roman times and exerted an influence every bit as powerful as that of their more familiar Greek and Roman counterparts. Curran vividly recreates this first wave of European Egyptomania with insightful interpretations of the period's artistic and literary works. In doing so, he paints a colorful picture of a time in which early moderns made the first efforts to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs, and popes and princes erected pyramids and other Egyptianate marvels to commemorate their own authority. Demonstrating that the emergence of ancient Egypt as a distinct category of historical knowledge was one of Renaissance humanism's great accomplishments, Curran's peerless study will be required reading for Renaissance scholars and anyone interested in the treasures and legacy of ancient Egypt.
An unconventional history of Philadelphia that operates at the threshold of cultural and environmental studies, A Greene Country Towne expands the meaning of community beyond people to encompass nonhuman beings, things, and forces. By examining a diverse range of cultural acts and material objects created in Philadelphia—from Native American artifacts, early stoves, and literary works to public parks, photographs, and paintings—through the lens of new materialism, the essays in A Greene Country Towne ask us to consider an urban environmental history in which humans are not the only protagonists. This collection reimagines the city as a system of constantly evolving constituents and agencies that have interacted over time, a system powerfully captured by Philadelphia artists, writers, architects, and planners since the seventeenth century. In addition to the editors, contributors to this volume are Maria Farland, Nate Gabriel, Andrea L. M. Hansen, Scott Hicks, Michael Dean Mackintosh, Amy E. Menzer, Stephen Nepa, John Ott, Sue Ann Prince, and Mary I. Unger.
The Art of City Sketching: A Field Manual guides you through the laborious and sometimes complex process of sketching what you see in the built environment so that you can learn to draw what you imagine. Illustrated with hundreds of drawings by students and professionals of cityscapes around Europe and the United States, the book helps you develop your conceptual drawing skills so that you can communicate graphically to represent the built environment. Short exercises, projects, drawing tips, step-by-step demonstrations, and composition do's and don'ts make it easy for you to get out into the city and experiment in your own work. Author Michael Abrams uses his experience as a field sketching instructor, to show you that by drawing, you can discover, analyze, and comprehend the built environment.
This book is a bridge to confident academic writing for advanced non-native English users. It emphasizes depth over breadth through mastery of core writing competencies and strategies which apply to most academic disciplines and genres. Tailored to students in EMI programs, the content was piloted and revised during a longitudinal writing study. The innovative approach prepares students to write for the academic community through the dual lenses of Art (developing a writer’s voice through choices in language, style, and topics) and Architecture (mastering norms of academic language, genre, and organization.) The user-friendly text maximizes time for writing practice and production by avoiding lengthy readings. Part 1 builds skills and confidence in writing by focusing on assignments that do not require research. Part 2 applies newly mastered principles, skills, and strategies to research-based writing. Students learn to incorporate thesis, research, and evidence into a process for academic writing by following the AWARE framework (Arranging to write, Writing, Assessing, Revising, and Editing.)
Tschumi Parc de la Villette is the first publication to document comprehensively Bernard Tschumi's first, and arguably still most celebrated project. With new and republished writing including a text by Bernard Tschumi and Anthony Vidler's "Trick-Track" originally published in 1986, alongside a newly-commissioned essay assesing the Parc from a contemporary and historical perspective, this book documents Parc de la Villette from its conception, through the 30 years of its existence, to the present. Tschumi Parc de la Villette includes drawings, concept sketches, models and photographs showing the development of the Parc over three decades, brought together in a single volume for the first time since the 1980s. One of the "Grands Projets" commissioned by the French Government in the 1980s, Parc de la Villette set a benchmark for urban parks in the latter part of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Tschumi constructed a series of follies across the site, creating what he called "the largest discontinuous building in the world". Published to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Parc, Tschumi Parc de la Villette broadly celebrates the project, and articularly the way in which it has been embraced by generations of Parisians and a diverse international public.
