Random House New Releases - Architecture - Reference

Wrought Iron by Richard Hayman

2011-03-22T00:30:00-05:00

Wrought Iron
Written by Richard Hayman

Trade Paperback, 32 pages | Shire | Architecture - History - Medieval; Architecture - Reference; History - Great Britain | $11.95 | 978-0-7478-0441-3 (0-7478-0441-9)

Wrought iron has been used as a decorative element in architecture from the eleventh century to the twentieth. At first a device to strengthen and embellish doors, wrought iron was soon adopted for free-standing screens and railings, examples of which can still be seen in churches and cathedrals. At the end of the seventeenth century iron screens, gates and railings became a fashionable element of country and town houses, resulting in the most creative period of decorative ironwork. The cheaper technique of cast iron led to a subsequent decline in wrought iron, although the latter underwent a revival at the end of the nineteenth century, led by influential architects such as William Burges and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This book provides an introductory guide to decorative wrought iron, describing how it was made, its context in architectural history and where fine examples can be seen today.

S, M, L, XL by Bruce Mau

1997-10-01T00:30:00-05:00

S, M, L, XL
Written by Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau

Hardcover, 1376 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Reference; Architecture - Planning; Architecture - Public, Commercial, or Industrial Buildings | $85.00 | 978-1-885254-86-3 (1-885254-86-5)

S,M,L,XL presents a selection of the remarkable visionary design work produced by the Dutch firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.) and its acclaimed founder, Rem Koolhaas, in its first twenty years, along with a variety of insightful, often poetic writings. The inventive collaboration between Koolhaas and designer Bruce Mau is a graphic overture that weaves together architectural projects, photos and sketches, diary excerpts, personal travelogues, fairy tales, and fables, as well as critical essays on contemporary architecture and society.

The book's title is also its framework: projects and essays are arranged according to scale. While Small and Medium address issues ranging from the domestic to the public, Large focuses on what Koolhaas calls "the architecture of Bigness." Extra-Large features projects at the urban scale, along with the important essay "What Ever Happened to Urbanism?" and other studies of the contemporary city. Running throughout the book is a "dictionary" of an adventurous new Koolhaasian language -- definitions, commentaries, and quotes from hundreds of literary, cultural, artistic, and architectural sources.

A Field Guide to American Houses by Lee McAlester

1984-05-12T00:30:00-05:00

A Field Guide to American Houses
Written by Virginia Savage McAlester and Lee McAlester

Trade Paperback, 544 pages | Knopf | Architecture - Reference | $28.95 | 978-0-394-73969-4 (0-394-73969-8)

The guide that enables you to identify, and place in their historic and architectural contexts, the houses you see in your neighborhood or in your travels across America. 17th century to the present.