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Architectural Theory, Pioneering Texts | Taschen Hardcover

In stock
Sale price$69.00

Most architecture books show you buildings. This one shows you the arguments behind them, which turns out to be a rather different and more interesting proposition.

Architectural Theory gathers the significant writing on architecture produced since the Renaissance, arranged chronologically by country, running from Alberti and Palladio through to Le Corbusier and Koolhaas. Each treatise comes with an accompanying essay placing it in its historical moment, so you are not left to decode five-hundred-year-old prose unaided. There is a foreword by Bernd Evers and an introduction by Christof Thoenes, and the whole thing runs to 632 illustrated pages.

Is it readable, or is it a reference?

Both, but be realistic about it. This is not a book you finish in a weekend. It is organised so you can enter at any period and read a single treatise with its commentary, which is how most people use it. For a more focused single argument, The Formal Basis of Modern Architecture is the tighter read.

Who is it really for?

Architecture students, practising architects, and anyone whose interest has moved past looking at houses to wondering why they were designed that way. It is a genuine library book, the kind that stays on a shelf for decades and gets pulled down repeatedly.

As a gift it carries real weight for the right person, particularly a graduate or someone early in practice. It sits alongside Stillness and the rest of the architecture titles in our Books collection.

Why You'll Love It

  • The major architectural treatises from the Renaissance to the present in one volume
  • 632 illustrated pages, organised chronologically by country
  • Every text accompanied by an essay on its context and significance
  • Foreword by Bernd Evers, introduction by Christof Thoenes
  • A reference volume with decades of shelf life

Where It Lives Best

At two kilograms and 255 by 196mm this is a dense midi-format brick rather than a display piece, so it belongs standing on a shelf where the spine can be read, or lying beside a reading chair. It is a working book, not a styling prop, and looks most at home among other spines rather than staged on a coffee table. Give it a sturdy shelf.

Architectural Theory Pioneering Texts Taschen hardcover front cover
Architectural Theory, Pioneering Texts | Taschen Hardcover Sale price$69.00

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