Barmi: A Mediterranean City Through The Ages

by Xavier Hernàndez, Pilar Comes

Describes the development of a Mediterranean city from pre-Roman times to the present day.

Genres: History, Cities, Architecture

60 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 1990

Reviews

[Francis Bass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic artwork laid out in a (mostly) clear and accessible way. the pleasure of looking at a very complex thing and comprehending the order in it. It's wonderful to compare each phase of the city against the others, or to look at a single era in isolation, exploring with your eyes. More details than you could possibly find in a single reading.
The book's flaw is a certain level of sloppiness in the historical explanations - the text, but sometimes the drawings too. e.g. very weird to show an electric trolley without showing the wires. steel construction following industrial revolution is incorrectly called "iron" reinforced construction. In a book covering such a broad sweep of history, these explanations are bound to be a little facile, but shouldn't contain inaccuracies and confusions
Not up to the Dave Macaulay gold standard, but very good, and a totally novel approach to this kind of book

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fictional city, Barmi, that is meant to represent the typical Mediterranean city. Great drawings. Loved the step by step progression from basic farmers to a full fledged modern city. Went into sufficient detail as to the actual order that these events happened yet kept it a mostly picture book.