Spiro Kostof fu un importante storico dell'architettura il cui lavoro è riconosciuto per il suo approccio interdisciplinare e il suo focus sullo sviluppo urbano e l'architettura dell'ambiente costruito. I suoi influenti libri, ancora ampiamente letti e utilizzati nei corsi universitari, esplorano le intersezioni tra urbanistica, forma urbana e patrimonio architettonico. L'eredità di Kostof perdura attraverso un premio istituito a suo nome, che promuove opere che incarnano la sua prospettiva innovativa ed espansiva sulla storia dell'architettura.
The book is about the universal phenomenon of citymaking seen in a historical perspective - how and why cities took the shape they did. It focuses on a number of themes - organic patterns, the grid, the city as a diagram, the grand manner, and the skyline - and moves through time and place to interpret the hidden order inscribed in urban patterns.
Settings and Rituals
When the late Spiro Kostof's A History of Architecture appeared in 1985, it was universally hailed as a masterpiece--one of the finest books on architecture ever written. Now, updated and expanded, this classic reference continues to bring to readers the full array of civilization's architectural achievements.Insightful, engagingly written and graced with close to a thousand superb illustrations, the Second Edition of this extraordinary volume offers a sweeping narrative that examines architecture as it reflects the social, economic, and technological aspects of human history. The scope of the book is astonishing. Kostof examines a surprisingly wide variety of man-made structures: prehistoric huts and the TVA, the pyramids of Giza and the Rome railway station, the ziggurat and the department store. Kostof considered every building worthy of attention, every structure a potential source of insight, whether it be prehistoric hunting camps at Terra Amata, or the caves at Lascaux with their magnificent paintings, or a twenty-story hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
A history of the elements of cities traces the development of such features as streets, public places, urban divisions, and the frontiers of city and countryside, discussing the effect of natural disasters, war, and redevelopment on cities while offering insight into how to apply contemporary solutions to urban restoration efforts. Reprint.
Vom Frühmittelalter bis zum Spätbarock
Von den Anfängen bis zum Römischen Reich