This work presents a comprehensive survey of international architecture at the end of the century and offers a critical study of the social, cultural and political changes that are shaping the built environment today. Continual advances in science and technology, shifting demographics and greater global communications constantly transform lifestyles and business practices, and prompt a perpetual reinterpretation of architectural ideology and building types. The book is divided into 12 chapters, each organized typologically into building functions - visual arts, performance, religion, consumerism, living, workplace, learning, industry, sport, tourism, transport, civic realm and megastructures. It presents over 300 recent public and private buildings, from housing and work environments to sports and leisure facilities, by many of the world's key protagonists, and examines the evolution of new architectural solutions from the late 60s to the end of the century and beyond. Biographical details of the major architects featured are also included.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Hugh Pearman's Contemporary World Architecture is a remarkable work that gives new meaning to the term magnum opus. Its sheer bulk and scope are staggering: about seven pounds and 512 large pages, with about 1200 illustrations (predominantly in color) depicting 660 buildings around the world. It's a 13-course visual feast showcasing the most interesting, dramatic, graceful, inventive, subtle, and significant constructions of the late 20th century. But size and looks aren't everything: this book also has brains; it organizes the material by broad building types to allow readers to make logical comparisons, bringing order to potential chaos. Each chapter could be considered a small monograph on different building types--structures for the visual arts, performing arts, learning, religion, retailing and restaurants, housing, white-collar work, industry, tourism and entertainment, transportation, and sports, as well as skyscrapers and public buildings and spaces.
It's a near-impossible task, but Pearman endeavors to say something structured and intelligent about each of those many buildings, and place them in some societal or physical context. He doesn't shy from strong opinions, declaring that Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, "instantly became the single most famous building in the world when it opened," and calling it the "most evocative architectural image" of our time.
Many of the photos are frustratingly small given the complexity of their content, but remedying that would obviously have created an even larger, more costly volume. As it is, Pearman's book is essential reading for students, practitioners, clients, or anyone else seriously interested in the architecture of our time. --John Pastier
From Library Journal
This vast, visually oriented, and arresting feast of a book has all the proper ingredients?stunning interior and exterior photographs, elevations and site plans, a detailed and perceptive text by a noted authority and curator (critic of the London Sunday Times), and, above all, a well-selected abundance of over 600 trophy buildings from the past 30 years. Thirteen building categories are treated, from museums and performance halls to living spaces, theme parks, airports, factories, and supertowers. The book is international in scope?the library section, for example, covers buildings in Oregon, Stockholm, Munster, Ireland, London, and Yokohama. The bibliography includes general works by building type, geographic location, and individual architect. This insightful overview of contemporary architectural pluralism is highly recommended for academic and most public libraries.?Russell T. Clement, Univ. of Tennessee Lib., Knoxville
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pictures galore,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Contemporary World Architecture (Hardcover)
This is a book that is very fun to look through. I notice new things about buildings I have seen many times whenever I crack the cover.
Large, color pictures abound along with an easily understood organization and simple, concise descriptions. This book lets the buildings do the talking through pictures instead of pages and pages of convoluted text.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incorporates shelter, history, building mechanics,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Contemporary World: Architecture (Paperback)
In the pages of Contemporary World Architecture, London-based writer, lecturer and architectural expert Hugh Pearman presents an immense and wonderfully illustrated study of architecture drawn from nations around the globe. Filled cover to cover with gorgeous color photography and erudite commentary on thirteen separate categories of buildings, Contemporary World Architecture is as much an architectural art appreciation reference as it is a practical study of the design, sturdiness, and aesthetics of architectural construction styles transcending cultures. An amazing, eye-catching, 511 page volume that incorporates shelter, history, building mechanics and more into a studious whole, Contemporary World Architecture is strongly recommended for professional and academic architectural reference collections as being an impressive and seminal work of detailed architectural information and enduring appreciation.
5 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's fantastic & Usefull for all arc. & civil engineers .,
This review is from: Contemporary World Architecture (Hardcover)
very nic
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