Elements of architecture : from form to place + tectonics / Pierre von Meiss, translated from the French by Theo Hakola.

Previous edition: London: Van Nostrand Reinhold (International), 1989.

engineering bookfair2015

Formerly CIP. |5 Uk

Includes bibliographical references.

Foreword / Kenneth Frampton --
Part I. Elements of architecture: from form to place : 1. Phenomena of perception : The pleasure of looking at, listening to, feeling, touching and moving through architecture : Seeing ; Listening ; Scent ; Touching ; The body in motion ; Seeing and perceiving ; Laws of vision ; The eye is not innocent ; The sphere and the rose --
2. Order and disorder : Inevitable order : Order in construction ; The sense of order --
Factors of coherence : Repetition and resemblance ; Proximity ; Enclosure or common background ; Orientation of elements: parallelism or convergence towards a void or a solid --
From order to chaos : Homogeneity and texture ; Alignments and series ; Gradation ; Hierarchy ; Contrast ; Complexity ; Contradiction ; Chaos --
Interaction of factors --
Regularity and irregularity : Simplicity ; Regularity ; Exception to the rule --
Order in disorder and vice versa --
3. Measure and balance : Spaces on a human scale --
The notion of scale --
Anthropomorphism and architecture --
The fascination of number and proportions : Commensurate proportions ; Incommensurate proportions ; Proportions in difficulty --
Balance : Symmetry ; Asymmetrical balance --
4. Fabric and object : City and monuments --
Composition of the object: articulation and continuity : Articulation ; Continuity --
The object: faces, corners, relationship to ground and sky : Positive articulation: corner in relief, plinth and cornice ; Negative articulation: the recessed joint ; The sharp edge ; The fusion of faces --
First Interlude: From object to space : Spatiality of objects --
Relationships between objects --5. Space : Elements of spatial definition --
Depth of space --
Density of space --
Opening of space --
Spatial juxtaposition and interpenetration --
Spatial characteristics of elementary shapes --
Composing: Wright and the Froebel blocks --
Composing: Le Corbusier and the 4 Compositions (1929) --
Composing verticality --
Three strategies for spatial composition ; Structure-space ; The "Raumplan" ; The "free plan" --
Floor, wall and ceiling --
6. Light and shade : Light comes to us from things : Quantity and quality ; Light and space ; Windows all over the place ; Half-light and shadows ; The challenge of lighting in five points --
Second Interlude: From space to place --
7. Places : The landscape: a great challenge --
Site and place --
Limits, thresholds and spaces of transition --
Place as an identity-support --
Dynamics of path --
Third Interlude: Cosmic, territorial and temporal orientation --
Part II. Tectonics : 8. Making materials sing : Form and material : Stone ; Reinforced concrete ; Brick ; Wood ; Glass ; From metals to carbon --
9. Aesthetic of gravity : Obvious solidity --
Stability and elegant performance --
Imbalance re-balanced : Lateral thrust --
Technology and modernity --
Fact or fiction? : Technology displayed ; Technology extolled ; Fragile technology ; "Falsified" technology ; Technology as a service ; Technology domesticated (tamed) --
10. Body and cladding : The issues --
Texture, bonding and modenature --
Thicknesses --
Face or mask? : Rough-and-raw or skin? ; Tracing the skeleton versus autonomy ; Textile inspired cladding ; From "High-Tech expressionism" to the "mystery of the veil" --
The façade as a complex "machine" --
Epilogue --
Annex : Transparency: literal and phenomenal / Colin Rowe & Robert Slutzky --
Architecture against the city / Bernard Huet --
The landscape alternative / Sébastien Marot.

Modernity has opened the way towards a grand diversity of form. However, even if architecture is a cultural phenomenon, this does not mean it is a product of fashion – it is not ephemeral enough for that. An architect just starting out is best advised to aim for the essential, or to rediscover certain time-tested certainties before transgressing them.

The first part of this work explores the means of compositional architecture, followed by the interpretation of the relationships between space, light, and place. Four or five thousand years of history has shown the resilience of certain fundamental principles intrinsic to our disciple that organizes, in three dimensions, the vital space of man.

In the second part, the author provides certain keys to managing the relationship between form, material and construction, keeping in mind that the need to build has never been sufficient, in itself, to design the form of the house or the city.

Neither dictionary, nor encyclopedia, this work attempts to fill a gap: it proposes an introduction to architectural design and criticism, considered in the light of our time.

Praised by critics and used as a book of reference in numerous schools, the first edition of this book has been translated into English, Italian, German, Korean and Chinese.