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Book Shelf: 25 Great Buildings

Twenty-Five Buildings Every Architect Should Understand.


For the would-be architects in our ranks, here is an interesting new book on the design process and thinking that goes into creating great buildings, using case studies of some of the most important architectural accomplishments across the globe.

Have you ever wondered how the ideas behind the world’s greatest architecture came about? Or the process an architect goes through to design buildings which become world-renowned for their excellence? Simon Unwin reveals the secrets behind twenty-five such buildings, introducing a unique analytical method which can be used every time you encounter a new building.

The new edition of this popular book features an additional five buildings and includes examples from an even wider geographical range including the US, Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Australia, China, India, and Japan.

Twenty-Five Buildings Every Architect Should Understand, complete with over 400 beautifully hand-drawn illustrations, closely examines concepts such as the relationship of architecture to the human being, how it frames our lives and orchestrates our experiences; how it can help us make sense of the world and contribute to our senses of identity and place.

A fully revised second edition exploring these dimensions through a wide range of case studies that illustrate the rich diversity of twentieth and twenty-first century architecture, this book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in architecture.

“Unwin’s writings and drawings harmonize so well, and treat their manifold subject with such surgical precision and care, that they enable the reader who has not visited (in most cases never will visit) these exemplary projects, to feel as though we have entered into them, and felt with our own bodies their widely diverse and often intimate choreographies.” — Ted Landrum, University of Manitoba, Canada

Simon Unwin is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of Dundee, Scotland. He has lived in Great Britain and Australia, and taught or lectured on his work in China, Israel, India, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.

Twenty-Five Buildings Every Architect Should Understand: A revised and expanded edition of Twenty Buildings Every Architect Should Understand, 2nd Edition

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