How Architecture Works: A Humanist's Toolkit - An Illustrated Talk and Book Signing with Witold Rybczynski

 

How Architecture Works: A Humanist's Toolkit

An Illustrated Talk and Book Signing with Witold Rybczynski
With an introduction by Jacob Weisberg*

welcoming remarks by Kate Wood 

 Tuesday, October 28, 2014 6:30 PM 

 Macaulay Honors College, 35 West 67 Street

   

  

How Architecture Works is a humanist's toolkit for thinking about the built environment and seeing it afresh. In his book, Rybczynski says, "Most architecture, a backdrop for our everyday lives, is experienced in bits and pieces - the glimpsed view of a distant spire, the intricacy of a wrought-iron railing, the soaring space of a railroad station waiting room. Sometimes it's just a detail, a well-shaped door handle, a window framing a perfect little view, a rosette carved into a chapel pew. And we say to ourselves, 'How nice. Someone actually thought of that.'"

  

Modern architecture runs the gamut from fantasy to engineering to retro. This book introduces readers to the rich and varied world of contemporary design, and takes them behind the scenes, showing how architects as varied as Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano and Robert A. M. Stern work their magic. From a war memorial in London to an opera house in St. Petersburg, from the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, to an architect's private retreat in downtown Princeton, Rybczynski explains the central elements that constitute good building design.

"...ever the engaging and thoughtful writer, [Rybczynski] offers a wide-ranging tour of the glories and curiosities, old and new, in the field."  -  Washington Post

 

"[This] expert, holistic, down-to-earth guide awakens us to architecture's profound humanness."  -  Booklist

*Jacob Weisberg is the Chairman of The Slate Group. He is a writer, editor, and political commentator, whose work has been featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine and Newsweek. He is also the author of The Bush Tragedy, a 2008 New York Times bestseller.

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