Product Description

Michael Benedikt teaches, practices architecture, and writes in Austin, where he is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas. His second book, Deconstructing the Kimbell (0-930829-16-6), is also published by Lumen.

"Benedikt has written a bold theoretical essay, with stirring cultural implications, that argues to restore the missing sense of reality to architecture and insists on 'the direct esthetic experience of the real.' . . . a timely manifesto. Thought-provoking and eminently quotable, it succeeds admirably in what it sets out to do: to recall architecture, and not only architecture, to those all but mute meanings so often passed over and yet inseparable from our everyday existence.-Karsten Harries

"This book will still be useful when this year's round arches have all been remodeled (isn't it inevitable?) into pointed. And because it is so vividly -and thoughtfully--written, it will still be a pleasure to read."-Charles Moore

"Every literate architect should take an afternoon off to read and ponder this brief and thoughtful and thoroughly engaging book. . . . Benedikt says more about some central aesthetic and philosophical issues confronting contemporary architecture than many celebrated pundits manage to squeeze into a shelfful of books. . . . He offers a straightforward account of his own struggle to understand the pleasures and responsibilities of architecture in an age when aesthetic pleasure is all but indiscernible from entertainment, and responsibility is often a cover for thoughtless conformity."-Roger Kimball, Architectural Record

"Benedikt marches bravely into the philosophical thicket to find a working definition of reality. . . . In his sensibilities, he is quite transcendental, much like a Thoreau or an Emerson in a hotel lobby of potted ficus trees."-Howard Mansfield, Small Press

". . . the book of the decade in Texas architectural circles. . . "-Texas Architect

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90190 in Books
• Published on: 1992-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 74 pages

Customer Reviews

Very important
I'm in the middle of an M.ARCH degree right now and this book has been the most influential thing I've read so far. It reminds me why I'm in school and what I'm supposed to be learning how to do. You can make sexy images and wonderful compositions that pretend to be sections and plans, or, you can think about the actual presence of the building. It's the difference between Hadid's work - which is incredibly beautiful on paper and in her paintings and yet often disorienting in real life - and Kahn's work which has fairly boring plans and sections (to me), but is powerful beyond words in actuality.

Antidote for the times
This is a delightful little book (nevertheless with large ideas) and a marvelous counter to the excesses of our times. It focuses on the direct physical experience of buildings, and is written in surprisingly clear, even poetic, English. It returns our attention to fundamentals that, in this gas-powered, electronic, digital age, we too easily forget.

An elegant exposition on the possibilities of architecture
Without a doubt, one of the most elegant contemporary arguments about the strength and possibilities of architecture. If every architect thought about this small book, we'd live in a fundamentally different environment. Highly recommended.