Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Classical Language of Architecture

The Classical Language of Architecture

Summerson, John

Paperback

Architecture History

Publisher Price: $25.00

ISBN10: 0262690128
ISBN13: 9780262690126
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: Dec 15 1966
Pages: 80
Weight: 0.37
Height: 0.20 Width: 8.84 Depth: 7.15
Language: English
The author's purpose is to set out as simply and vividly as possible the exact grammatical workings of an architectural language.

Classical architecture is a visual language and like any other language has its own grammatical rules. Classical buildings as widely spaced in time as a Roman temple, an Italian Renaissance palace and a Regency house all show an awareness of these rules even if they vary them, break them or poetically contradict them. Sir Christopher Wren described them as the Latin of architecture and the analogy is almost exact. There is the difference, however, that whereas the learning of Latin is a slow and difficult business, the language of classical architecture is relatively simple. It is still, to a great extent, the mode of expression of our urban surroundings, since classical architecture was the common language of the western world till comparatively recent times. Anybody to whom architecture makes a strong appeal has probably already discovered something of its grammar for himself.

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