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Product Description
Cities are among the most enduring and remarkable of human artefacts. This study explains how and why cities took the shape they did. Professor Kostof focuses on a number of themes - organic patterns, the grid, the city as diagram, the grand manner and the skyline - and interprets the hidden order of urban patterns. Photographs, historical views and specially commissioned drawings depict a global mosaic of citybuilding: the shaping of medieval Siena; the creation of New Delhi as the crown of the Raj; the remodelling of Moscow as the self-styled capital of world socialism and the transformation of the skyline as religious and civic symbols yield to the towers of corporate business.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Working into doing my MA this looked promising. The language is at a sufficiently high level to send you to dictionary occasionally should you want to do more than just look at the pictures......This may not be the most insightful or easy to read tome but the volume is academically solid and a great resource for reference for the historical development of urban fabrics around the world. I am going to buy Assembled as well on the expectation that it will be as informative. Buy only if you are really into your Urban Architecture, not one for the faint hearted.
7 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Let's face it, few people will read this book. This book is all about the pictures and photos which are both facinating and inspiring. If you're into architecture or town planning this a book that ought to be on your bookshelf - or more importantly, flicked through every so often.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
A classic
4 May 2005
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Well written, consistently interesting and structured around the challenges of topography and the urban form demands invoked by market needs, political architectures and cultural expectations through history, this beautifully illustrated book delivers the promise of its title and a lot more.
Because the author, Spiro Kostof, organized his book by patterns and topological relationships, the text compresses history and geographies into a comparative perspective. This presents a disadvantage to the reader if he/she is interested in only one time, one culture or even just one architectural movement.
On the other hand, the comparative perspective lends authority to Kostof's overarching theoretical approach of connecting urban forms to content and how those relationships persist across the spectrum of the human experience. A must for any architect's or planner's library.
Because the author, Spiro Kostof, organized his book by patterns and topological relationships, the text compresses history and geographies into a comparative perspective. This presents a disadvantage to the reader if he/she is interested in only one time, one culture or even just one architectural movement.
On the other hand, the comparative perspective lends authority to Kostof's overarching theoretical approach of connecting urban forms to content and how those relationships persist across the spectrum of the human experience. A must for any architect's or planner's library.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
a guidebook of magnificent ideas on city
24 Feb 2001
Format:Paperback
Perhapes part of Kostof's category for urban patterns( as organic, grids, grand manner....) is arguable, but his wonderful ananlyses for each individual sample lead us into deeper understanding of urban patterns and social meanings behind. Many cities familiar to most of us (Siena, Paris, New Dehli....) appear refreshingly unfamiliar in his book.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A well-written foray into urban formation
9 Oct 2006
Format:Paperback
Spiro Kostof's book is a fantastic and intelligent foray into urban form. What I found most appealing about the book was his approach in grappling with the WHY of things; in describing how certain urban forms have come to pass, he offers the requisite determined factors as any architect of the City ought to do and then manages the neat trick of gracefully acknowledging that these factors do not necessarily lead to a single outcome. But he is intrepid in his analysis and his approach. Beginners may find this book difficult because it does assume a basic understanding of cities and city planning; however, ambitious readers should give it a try. Mr. Kostof's cultural and historical references and his non-linear style are extremely appealing and intriguing, so much so that I will continue on to "The City Assembled", the companion piece, with great eagerness.
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