Customer Reviews
Tacit and Explicit Divide Remains - By: Cardano, 23 May 2008 
I found this book rather unsatisfying. Like so many instructional worksin design, the duality of tacit & explicit knowledge was not bridged & again like so many works of this sort it relies upon a rehearsal of historical & contemporary precedents & exemplars to illustrate formal spatial, geometric & structural concepts. Talking about design is not the same as doing it & I did not feel the book helped one to set about tackling a design problem. The many hand drawn illustrations are engaging - the better ones are those that have not been traced or rendered over from photographs.
Naming the pieces and putting them together - By: Sticks and Glue, 19 Feb 2006 
A good clear way to startin a journey to understand the human foundations & terminology of architecture. Many books like this can either lose youin complexityin the first few pages, or be tediously simple coffee table books where the glossy images are real content, but this book just about manages the tightrope between the two. I'd recommnend it, but what do I know? (more than I did before)
Excellent and highly recommended introduction to architectur - By: Ken Allinson, 04 Apr 2002 
This is an excellent book, recommended to anyone seriously interestedin architecture. It's starting point is Unwin's ability to draw well - to think through his hands, as it were. This is fundamental to architectural skill & Unwin has used it to 'talk back to himself' & describe the architecture around him. He uses this skill to romp through a huge number & variety of buildings & architectural situationsin order to describe architectural strategies. Unwin has at the heart of his book a definition & understanding of architecture that we thoroughly endorse: to be dealt within terms of its conceptual organisation & intellectual structure. But he adds to this potentially dry definition an emotive overlay or parallel: architecture as the identification of place ("Place is to architecture as meaning is to language.") Thus he takes on th eissue of why we value architecture. (Oddly though, his book makes no reference - evenin the bibliography - to D.K.Ching & Geoffrey Baker's similar & earlier books on architectural analysis, both of which are also very good & worth looking up.)
Fantastic, get it - By: owaine@bigfoot.com, 25 Oct 2000 The book gives you a clear understanding of architecture. Great if you are a first year architecture student. You will find that is will get you through your first year.
Excellent introduction. - By: , 09 Nov 1997 Beginning with the root definition of architecture as its "conceptual organization, its intellectual structures"., the author makes clear its function as "identification of place", goes on to identify the basic elements & concepts, examines the use of natural features of the landscape, analyzes primitive place types, geometryin architecture, space & structure, & other key concepts.
From the campsites of primitive man to the sophisticated structures of the late twentieth century, architecture as an essential function of human activity is explained clearly, & illustrated with the author's own excellent drawings. Highly recommended as a well-organized & readable introduction.
(The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)
