Architecture 101: From Frank Gehry to Ziggurats, an Essential Guide to Building Styles and Materials

Adams 101

by Nicole Bridge

A crash course in designing and constructing buildingsToo often, textbooks turn the noteworthy details of architecture into tedious discourse that would put even Frank Gehry to sleep. Architecture 101 cuts out the boring explanations, and instead provides a hands-on lesson that keeps you engaged as you explore the world's greatest structures.Featuring only the most important facts, building styles, and architects, you'll enjoy uncovering the remarkable world of architecture with this book. Inside, you'll also find fascinating elements Illustrations of popular building styles, such as Georgian and Greek RevivalDrawings of the essential parts of different buildingsUnique profiles of the most inspirational figures in architectureFrom Norman Foster and Frank Lloyd Wright to the Beauvais Cathedral and the Empire State Building, Architecture 101 is packed with hundreds of entertaining architecture tidbits that you can't get anywhere else!

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, History, Art, Reference, Science

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2015

Reviews

[Assaph Mehr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Architecture has been on my mind lately, so what's better than a book with a review of the development of architecture throughout the ages?

What to Expect

Expect a high-level description of some notable architectural movements from the stone age to modern days. Focus is on Western monumental architecture, with some diversions to other geographies and styles. Some chapters deal with notable architects throughout history (from Vitruvius, through Palladio, to modernists like Frank Lloyd Wright and the post-modernist Frank Gehry. Some additional chapters focus on specific architectural elements, like arches and supports.

What I liked

Besides the subject matter itself, the books does do a good job of introducing the major streams of architecture, how each rose in response to those which came before (like all art), and the people and technology that moved it forward along the ages. It's a primer, a jumping board from which you can go further to learn more. Rather than being a disjointed or overly detailed review of architectural features, it shows the evolution of the practice throughout history.

What to be aware of

The book is very high-level. Each of the chapters deserves a book (or bookshelf) of its own to cover it. While expected from a '101' type book, there were other issues that bear keeping in mind.

first and foremost, is that while there are some illustrations and photographs, they're not nearly enough. As the cliché goes, a picture is worth a thousand words - and when discussing a visual medium like architecture, it's a must.I read it on the kindle, so I ended up going to Wikipedia a lot. I do it often to explore topics in more depth, but I expected a better baseline information.

Other issues are the Western/monuments centricity. There are a handful of chapters on the architecture styles of non-Western cultures, from Native American to Buddhist, but really they are so perfunctory and superficial they feel like they've been added just to tick the box.

Even when dealing with European architecture, the book focuses almost entirely on Churches. One would think that in pre-modern times all there was were either huts or cathedrals. There isn't enough information on where most people lived (domestic buildings).

Summary

Despite the caveats above, the book does a credible job of what it aims to do - an orientation of architecture history for the interested layperson.

Enjoying the reviews, but wondering why I (and Felix) care about historical detail so much? Glad you asked! Felix is the protagonist of the Togas, Daggers, and Magic series, an historical-fantasy blend of a paranormal detective on the background of ancient Rome.

Assaph Mehr, author of Murder In Absentia: A story of Togas, Daggers, and Magic - for lovers of Ancient Rome, Murder Mysteries, and Urban Fantasy.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview ... if you already know a good bit about architecture. Few terms are explained and few concepts illustrated.

[Sam K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not recommended.
Very dry and poorly produced. Every time the author mentions a building or a construction system, I had to pause, google it (learn there) and come back to read about the next example in the next architectural style repeating the same process over and over again.
The cover is misleading, the texts are not accompanied by illustrations. In my opinion, you can get a lot more value and knowledge investing the time it takes to read this book, in reading another book.

[Anne Cabaniss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Architecture 101: From Frank Gehry to Ziggurats, an Essential Guide to Building Styles and Materials is a broad but shallow overview of architectural history. The cover illustrations suggest that the text will be accompanied by explanatory line drawings, but there are very few; and the few there are are not clearly labeled. Read this book with your phone, tablet, or laptop in hand so you can Google architects and building styles as you go.

[dot · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title should have more of a focus of it being a brief overview of building styles throughout art (perhaps Architecture 101: Building Styles), and would have greatly benefited from a glossary as well as more drawn explanations of techniques and photos. Not really a book for someone who doesn’t know a lot about architecture and glosses over principles I would have thought should have been covered in a book called Architecture 101.

[irem · Rating 3 out of 5]

iyi bir başlangıç kitabı olduğunu söyleyemem çoğu kavram halihazırda mimarlık okuyan, temeli olan okurların anlayabileceği şekilde açıklanmış. tanımlanan yapılara ait görseller daha fazla olabilirdi çünkü dikkatimi çeken ve not aldığım örnekler dışında aklımda kaldığı pek söylenemez. yine de okuması zevkliydi ve daha fazlasını araştırmanız için size ipuçları veriyor.

[Asım Kaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Çok iyi bir giriş kitabı değil. Resim ve plan açısından yetersiz, anlattıkları havada kalıyor. Yine de bir şeylerin adını duyup birkaç sayfa bilgi almak açısından idare eder. En azından araştıracak bir liste oluyor elinizde.

[J. Baranzelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished this graduation gift a year after graduating lmao. It was okay succinct information, not much detail. Main gripe was a lack of sources and some missing details that I feel would elevate some chapters. Great waiting room book!

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and informative. Some facts I already knew having studied art history and architecture but good reminders.

[Rahul Chodankar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite useful for Architecture Undergrads I believe

[Murat Yeğin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Olmamış bir kitap. Çok dağınık ve bir sürü farklı kaynaktan rastgele cümleler bir araya getirilmiş gibi.

[Fatma Ozen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mimari akımlar ve önderleri ve onların eserleri, tarzları hakkında bir başucu kitabı diyebiliriz tek cümleyle.

[Sweemeng Ng · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very shallow at intro. But it is also a small book.

[Mike Harrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish it had photos to go with the descriptions.

[Anthony Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview

Good for reading from time to time. It gives you a very nice chronological view of the history of architecture.

[Shehryar Qazi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really needs illustrations

[Cliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent concise history of architecture and its role in culture. I was hoping for my diagrams to explain the text, but it's still a great 101 class which is what it purports to be.

[Andrea Aviado · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good primer about architecture as a whole but often found myself googling about some topics as the book lacks information about it.

[Dila · Rating 3 out of 5]

mimarlık bölümüne yeni başladıysanız çok güzel bir özete sahip, benim genel olarak bildiğim bilgiler olduğu için sıkıldım 3/5

[Farida Khattab · Rating 1 out of 5]

For an architecture book I expected more pictures

[Joanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Information: 2 stars
Writing: 1 star

There wasn't any major issue with this book, it's just that the writing was incredibly mediocre. Not only that, but the entire book's format was exactly like a boring textbook, only shorter, and I struggled to finish it. The information was typical and didn't capture the essence of the concepts and people presented.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not sure who the audience is for this book tracing architectural developments from the Stone Age to modern Green Architecture. The writing is too simplistic for a reader well-versed in architectural styles, but it's written in a dull, listless way that would not inspire most novices to want to learn more. Although I learned a few new facts, I was disappointed overall.

[Jesus Bartolo · Rating 2 out of 5]

book was trash. Misspellings everywhere and not enough pictures for the visual parts.

[Murilo Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introductory book, I learned a lot about architecture! However, several of the 3-6 page chapters included some highly technical terms without any previous explanation, which hurt my comprehension significantly. Also, it doesn’t have a reference section at the end (which sucks).

[Brian Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good, accessible guide to architecture...