Reviews for Architecture For Dummies

The average rating for Architecture For Dummies based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-01-26 00:00:00 Michael Warner Good overall but more of a history than practical

Review # 2 was written on 2013-10-02 00:00:00 Tony Sall The book I read to research this post was Architecture For Dummies by Deborah K Dietsch which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book is mostly about appreciating good architecture and there is a little history as well as some biography information on various famous architects. There are various interesting facts like the columns in Ancient Greek times were meant to represent the human body metaphorically with the wide bit at the top representing the head and wide bit at the bottom representing the feet. The Gothic movement in church and cathedral building attracted much scorn at the time particularly among other architects because it did away with the intricate carved detail found in carvings up till then. The name came from the goths who were considered uncivilised invaders who settled in Europe in times past. In Russia after the Revolution a new style emerged where building were made with things like glass and concrete and they were built to be functional. These architects didn't consciously intend to set a new trend but did so nonetheless. The Hagia Sophia built as a great cathedral in Constantinople as it was then called had a dome only 8 feet smaller than St Paul's Cathedral which was built many centuries later. With the former the dome collapsed twice and was built by trial and error and is still one of the greatest domes in the world. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.