When buildings stopped making sense

"John Silber's 'Architecture of the Absurd'...is a thoughtful argument against the excesses of 'designer' architects and urban-planning utopians. Mr. Silber, the former president of Boston University,...is an architect's son and a professional philosopher who, as the president of a major university for 25 years, directed the construction of buildings totaling 13 million square feet of floor area...His critique of today's architectural culture has a hard-nosed clarity that is seldom found in today's writing about architecture..."

Wall Street Journal article:

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Reply to
Dave
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Down with Mensa! :)~

I received Architecture of the Absurd for Christmas (thanks, Dad!) and I'm about halfway done. Anyone else read the book?

R
Reply to
RicodJour

I'm reading nothing but geology stuff these days, and plenty.

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

Zzzzzzzzzz...huh...what? Sorry. Rocks for Jocks does that to me. :)~

R
Reply to
RicodJour

You're supposed to put'em in sample bags.

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

RicodJour wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@f47g2000hsd.googlegroups.com:

OK, this is available at Amazon.com and it sounds interesting to me.

What my request is, is this: Would you (the plural form, as in, posters in general) be willing to post your recomendations of interesting reading for non-architects? I'd be very interested in compiling a listing of things to get and read for the year, and woudl really appreciate soem good receommendations.

Thanks!

Reply to
Kris Krieger

Kris asked for architectural reading for a non-architect, not non- architectural reading for non-architects.

Kris, are construction related books allowed on that list, or just architectural/design?

R
Reply to
RicodJour

I think Kris would like "A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander... Has to be read in small bites followed by long periods of rumination.

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

RicodJour wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i12g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

True, but the recommendations are kind of interesting anyway.

The level I can handle construction-wise is mostly like Construction Techniques Illustrated (yes, I am a Francis D. K. Ching fan and will eventually own all of his books). I like to learn how things are done, but I don't have a technical background, so anything too detailed might be a bti ebyond my level. I also can't go for any $500 book sets ;)

In the past, tho', people have mentioned several design, arch. ideas, and general construction books that sounded intresting, but I lost my list of links during one of my perennial Windows crashes :(

OTOH, after having spent so much time recovering the computer, I'm feeling an antsy "information junkie" fit coming on (it's a reaction to the boredom of staring at the registry etc. so much), so I'm looking for reading recommendations from the folks here becuase I rather selfishly figure it's one way for me to bypass books that are basicly just claptrap No, seriously, I read the references that get made on this group to various books, and woudl like to get in on understanding more.

The Business books might not be a bad idea, either - I've tried to make a go of freelancing, and I can't just blame Windows for my, um, er, well let's just say total lack of business acumen

My interests are wide - science, arts, psychology, gardening/botany - I'm even reading the Koran, because I keep hearing poeple alk *about* it, but decided to read it for myself, even if it is only in translation.

There is a structure/form to "it all" so to speak, and the more I learn, the more fo the structure/form I can discern. What I like about Architecture is that it's almost a sort of orrory, in an abstract symbolic sort of way - the Universe has a form, and both Architecture an dMusic work with analagous forms, with those forms of course including both space and time.

OK, no, 'm not making any sense, but that's OK, it's almsot bedtime and I'm having a nip of rum (no cranberry juice tho') - the point is that I'm just interested in reading recommendations, because people here are pretty intelligent overall and I live and breathe to be educated. If I'm not either learning or creating, I get all shrivelly and cranky - which is how this computer recovery is leaving me feeling :p

Construction is good. Should I read, oh what is his name, ?Vetruvius?, or is that *too* much...?

Well, I should quit while I'm ahead (or at least before I get behinder...) and shut this machine down and get some sleep. Thanks in advance to everyone :)

Reply to
Kris Krieger

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