A Theory of Architecture

by Nikos A. Salingaros

More than a decade in the making, this is a textbook of architecture, useful for every from first-year students, to those taking senior design studio, to graduate students writing a Ph.D. dissertation in architectural theory, to experienced practicing architects. It is very carefully written so that it can be read even by the beginning architecture student. The information contained here is a veritable gold mine of design techniques.

This book teaches the reader how to design by adapting to human needs and sensibilities, yet independently of any particular style. Here is a unification of genuine architectural knowledge that brings a new clarity to the discipline. It explains much of what people instinctively know about architecture, and puts that knowledge for the first time in a concise, understandable form.

Dr. Salingaros has experience in the organization of the built environment that few practicing architects have. The later chapters of this new book touch on very sensitive what drives architects to produce the forms they build; and why architects use only a very restricted visual vocabulary. Is it personal inventiveness, or is it something more, which perhaps they are not even aware of? There has not been such a book treating the very essence of architecture. The only other author who is capable of raising a similar degree of passion (and controversy) is Christopher Alexander, who happens to be Dr. Salingaros' friend and architectural mentor.

Genres: Architecture, Design, Nonfiction

300 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2007

Reviews

[Salar Tahrirchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

بنده معتقدم کسانی که سرشون به تنشون میارزه و یه حرف درست و حسابی ای قراره بزنن، معمولا دچار بیماری اطاله ی کلام اند! جون آدم رو در میارن تا دو تا کلمه حرف مفید بزنن...
در مورد موضوع کتاب هم بگم که خیلی دیدگاه جالبی داشت آقای سالینگروس، فکر کنم روی مبانی نظری طراحی و زیبایی شناسیم تاثیرات خوبی گذاشته و محرک خوبی بوده برای مطالعات تکمیلی در آینده.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What ancient architects and builders seemed to know intuitively about scale and proportion in building, is now being corroborated by evidence from research in human psychology, the study of fractals, and systems analysis. This is a fascinating look at the elements and principles of architecture.

[burak · Rating 5 out of 5]

finished it a few days ago, this is one of those books i was hoping to have been already written before discovering it recently, the work reads as a medieval or even a pythagorean tractate, combining philosophy and mathematics but additional insights from biology and complexitiy theory are drawn as well. a very comprehensive work, written in textbook format, it paves the way as an ideal introduction to architecture and takes much inspiration from the master himself christopher alexander who could not have been honored in better fashion.

[Leonardo]

Para Nikos Salingaros, la lucha por las preocupaciones formales o crítico-ideológicas, en lugar de adaptarse a la naturaleza y a las necesidades de los seres humanos comunes, es lo que define a una «mala arquitectura» que lleva a la gente a sentirse incómoda o físicamente enferma. El blanco de la crítica de Salingaros era la elite de la arquitectura posmoderna, que enfatizaba el significado a expensas de la experiencia concreta de la gente que utilizaba sus edificios.

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