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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
Four Historical Definitions of Architecture

Four Historical Definitions of Architecture

Parcell, Stephen

Hardcover

General ArchitectureArchitecture History

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0773539565
ISBN13: 9780773539563
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: Apr 11 2012
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.40
Height: 1.20 Width: 6.40 Depth: 9.10
Language: English

Where does architecture belong in the larger scheme of things? Is it a liberal art? Is it related to painting, music, medicine, or horse training? Is it timeless, or does it have a beginning? To pursue such questions, Stephen Parcell investigates four historical definitions of Western architecture: as a techné in ancient Greece, a mechanical art in medieval Europe, an art of disegno in Renaissance Italy, and a fine art in eighteenth-century Europe.

These definitions situated architecture within larger classifications of knowledge, establishing alliances between architecture and other disciplines. They also influenced elements of architectural practice that we now associate with three characters (designer, builder, and dweller) and three things (material, drawing, and building). Guided by current architectural questions, Parcell examines writings in these historical periods and focuses on practical implications of texts by Hugh of St Victor, Leon Battista Alberti, and Etienne-Louis Boullée.

Four Historical Definitions of Architecture shows how the concept of architecture and elements of architectural practice have evolved over time. Even the word architecture has ambiguous roots.

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