Words and Buildings

The words we use when we talk and write about architecture describe more than just bricks and mortar--they indicate the ways we think of and live with buildings. This original and thoughtful study provides the first thorough examination of the relationship between architecture and language as complex social practices. The first section of the book consists of six rigorously argued essays that investigate the language of modernism, language and drawing, "masculine and feminine" architecture, language metaphors, science in architecture, and the social properties of architecture. The second part provides a vocabulary of key words, providing rich analyses of critical terms such as Character, Form, History, and Space. Each investigation locates a word's modern meaning within a framework of historical enquiry and theoretical discussion, setting out clearly the term's invention and treatment by architects, historians, philosophers, critics, and the people who actually use buildings. This wholly original study changes and enriches the way we think and talk about architecture, and will prove indispensable to anyone concerned with architecture and culture in the modern era.