shelved at: 91 : Architecture

shelved at: 91 : Architecture

As much as architects would like to think otherwise, they do more than just draw and build models. They also write – a lot, anything from correspondences and specifications to project descriptions and monographs. Therefore language is extremely important for conveying ideas, intentions and other things that may be expressed through drawings, models and even completed buildings, but need to be articulated as well through words. Adrian Forty's excellent book must be the only one that takes aim at how architects use language, specifically in terms of modern architecture, which had to stake out its own definitions in the 20th century. Just look at a dictionary of architecture to see how the language of architecture has changed from highly detailed building ornaments and elements to relatively intangible and abstract terms: context, form, space, transparency, truth, type, etc. Forty unravels the history of these and other terms in the second part of the book, following six chapters that discuss how architects use language and how meaning of particular words evolved in modernity. In addition to a strong grasp of history, Forty is adept at understanding how contemporary architects use language as a polemical tool to accompany their drawings and other visual output. ( )