Adrian Forty Livres

Available again, a wholly original study of the complex relationship between architecture and language that has changed and enriched the way we think and talk about architecture.The words we use when we talk and write about architecture describe more than just bricks and mortar they direct the ways we think of and live with buildings. This groundbreaking book is the first thorough examination of the complex relationship between architecture and language as intricate social practices. Six rigorously argued chapters investigate the language of modernism, language and drawing, masculine and feminine architecture, language metaphors, science in architecture, and the social properties of architecture. There follows a vocabulary of key words such as Character, Form, History and Space, locating each words modern meaning within an historical and theoretical framework, and setting out clearly its development and relevance for architects, historians, philosophers, critics and the users of the buildings themselves. Architects should be made to read Words and Buildings Architecture Today Unusually clear and accessible Students of all kinds will love this book The Architectural Review A forceful, clear and sophisticated exposition of the role of conceptual thought in architectural discourse The Architects Journal

Concrete has been used in arches, vaults, and domes dating as far back as the Roman Empire. Today, it is everywhere in our roads, bridges, sidewalks, walls, and architecture. For each person on the planet, nearly three tons of concrete are produced every year. Used almost universally in modern construction, concrete has become a polarizing material that provokes intense loathing in some and fervent passion in others. Focusing on concrete's effects on culture rather than its technical properties, "Concrete and Culture" examines the ways concrete has changed our understanding of nature, of time, and even of material. Adrian Forty concentrates not only on architects responses to concrete, but also takes into account the role concrete has played in politics, literature, cinema, labor-relations, and arguments about sustainability. Covering Europe, North and South America, and the Far East, Forty examines the degree that concrete has been responsible for modernist uniformity and the debates engendered by it. The first book to reflect on the global consequences of concrete, "Concrete and Culture" offers a new way to look at our environment over the past century

This is the new paperback edition of the most comprehensive survey of twentieth-century Brazilian architecture, analyzed by a new generation of critics and historians. The book covers about 200 buildings and urban designs, presenting key events and projects within a series of thematic chapters. It is extensively illustrated with archival black-and-white and new color photographs as well as drawings and sketches. It offers a fresh reading of Brazil's era of high modernism from the 1930s through the 1960s, placing it in context with regards to earlier and later architectural movements as well as the broad changes taking place in Brazilian culture at the time. The book also charts post-Brasilia developments, including case studies of contemporary projects, showing the relevance of Brazilian architecture within the international scene.

One of the most significant contributions to design history in recent years. Financial Times

In 1919, Nancy Astor became the first woman to take a seat in parliament. She was not what had been expected. Far from a virago who had suffered for the cause of female suffrage, she was already near the centre of the ruling society that had for so long resisted the political upheavals of the early twentieth century, having married into the family of one of the richest men in the world. She was not even British. She would prove to be a trailblazer and beacon for the generations of women who would follow her into Parliament. This new biography charts Nancy Astor's incredible story, from penury in the American South, to a lifestyle of the most immense riches, from the luxury of Edwardian England, through the 'Jazz Age', and on towards the Second World War: a world of great country estates, lavish town houses and the most sumptuous entertainments, peopled by the most famous and powerful names of the age. But hers was not only the life of power, glamour and easy charm: it was also defined by principles and bravery, by war and sacrifice, by love and bitter disputes. With glorious, page-turning brio, Adrian Fort has brought to life this restless, controversial American dynamo, an unforgettable woman who left a deep and lasting imprint on the political life of our nation.