Towns and Buildings

by Steen Eiler Rasmussen

Today's bustling tourism has proved itself a double-edged on the one hand it acquaints great numbers of people with cities and sights they might otherwise have missed; on the other it focuses on individual landmarks that the city as a whole is obscured and confused. Steen Eiler Rasmussen concentrates here on the town as a unity, as a whole composed of buildings and places. Most of the town plans are scaled to 1:20,000 for easy over-all comparison; several famous places are reduced to 1:2000 for closer comparison. The buildings are for the most part presented in three the first, en face : then the same view, minus the façade; and finally a top view, as if the upper stories had been removed. The result is a picture not of static façade and monument but of rooms and houses and towns where people live.

Genres: Architecture, Reference, History, Urbanism

Paperback

First published February 15, 1969

About the author

Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Hon. FAIA (9 January 1898 – 19 June 1990) was a Danish architect and urban planner who was a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and a prolific writer of books and poetry. He was made a Royal Designer for Industry by the British Royal Society of Arts in 1947.

Early life and education
Steen Eiler Rasmussen was born on 19 February 1898 in Copenhagen to Lieutenant colonel and later general Christian Rasmussen and Anna Dorthea (Dori) Jung. He first apprenticed as a mason and then studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1916 to 1918. In 1919 he set up his own practice.[1]

Architecture and urban planning
It was mainly as an urban planner that he made his name. He was part of the Danish Urban Planning Laboratory from 1924, as the Academy Council's representative, and its leader from 1942 to 1948. From 1932 to 1938 he worked at Copenhagen Municipality's Department for Urban Planning.

Through his involvement in the Urban Planning Laboratory, he was an important part of the process which led to the Finger Plan which has governed the overall development of suburban Copenhagen ever since. He also co-planned the area Tingbjerg town (yellow brickstone and greens) with C.Th. Sørensen in Copenhagen North West, as well as the town Hørsholm.

Among the buildings he has designed are Ringsted Town Hall, Mødrehjælpen (a social institution for women) in Copenhagen Ø and his own house in Rungsted Kyst Hørsholm, north of Copenhagen(1938).

Academia
Rasmussen was a lecturer at the Academy from 1924 and became a professor in 1936. Among his students were Jørn Utzon, designer of the Sydney Opera House, and Marian Pepler who designed rugs for Gordon Russell in the 1930s .

Writings
One of Rasmussen's most influential books was Experiencing Architecture, first published in Danish in 1957 and in English in 1959. Underlining the importance of a first-person, embodied experience of architecture - including its shape, color, scale, proportion, rhythm, textural effects, daylight and sound - the book may be regarded as a classic in architectural phenomenology.

Another important book was London. It was first published in Danish in 1934, in English (as London, the Unique City) in 1937. When this edition was re-issued in 1948, Rasmussen had added two Postscripts: "For English readers only", and "For American readers only". A shorter version was published as a paperback in 1960.

Other influential books by Rasmussen include Towns and Buildings (1951) and København (1969).

Among his many friends was Edmund N. Bacon.[citation needed]

Reviews

[Yasin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mimarlık eğitiminde öğrencilik döneminde oldukça popüler olan Yaşanan Mimari adlı kitabın yazarının bir başka kitabı. O kitapta olduğu gibi teorik bir derinlikten ziyede daha çok genel kavramlar etrafında şekillenen bir kitap.

Kitap ile alakalı olarak her şeyden önce ''Şehirler ve Yapılar'' adlı bir kitapta İstanbul ve Ayasofya'yı görememek elbette düşündürücü.. :)

Kitabın genel kapsamı ise şehirler özelinde ele alınan yapı veyahut şehir planlama gibi noktalar üzerinden bir takım bilgiler paylaşmak. Başlıklar genel olarak birinden ayrık. Yer yer güzel noktalara değinsede maalesef kitabın tamamı için çok olumlu konuşmak mümkün değil. Özellikle kendi coğrafyasına iltimas geçtiği noktalarda fazlaca detayda boğularak okumayı ve takip etmeyi zorlaştırıyor...

Kitabın başında yaptığı yapıdan ziyade şehircilik vurgusu ile iyi bir başlangıç yapıp sonrasında da aynı düzeyi birkaç başlık haricinde koruyamasa da okunabilir bir kitap diyebiliriz.

[Simyacı · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kitabin konusu güzel ancak anlatımı maalesef iyi değil.
okurken ilerlemeyen bir kitap. çarpık cümlelerle dolu. ben bir ara acaba çevirmen mi cevirememis dediğim oldu.

kitabin icerigi doğrultusunda italyadan ingiltereye ...oradan hollandaya kadar avrupanin yüzyillar boyu sehirlesmesini ve meshur yapilarini anlatiyor.

son 20 30 sayfalik kisminda kitap kendini toparlamisti.
ondan öncesi karmakarisikti.

meslegi olan ilgisi olan icin okunursa iyi .
okunmazsa çok birsey kacirmis olmayacaginiz birsey.

[Amy Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found the section on Dutch architecture and city planning during the 1600s really great but not so into the rest. Beautiful hand-drawn drawings; the maps of Amsterdam are especially beautiful as they illustrate the importance of the city being a sight and not just leading to the central castle.