Customer Reviews

Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture

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Here is an unusual book: Witold Rybczynski takes us wandering through the professional byways of a subject usually reserved for a more intellectual readership, if such a thing exists. Why architecture is important and what makes it so is the subject matter here, brought to us by a very competent writer. Delightfully so, in fact, as Rybczynski has the storyteller's ability to weft and weave.

The stories he has chosen here are a mixed bunch and we are asked to think about such diverse constructions as the American bungalow, the Grow Home and public buildings like the Canadian Centre for Architecture. He has stories to tell about all of them, the people who live in or use them and the odd trends which are sometimes responsible for a particular design. As he points out, although we use architecture every day of our lives and are clearly affected by it (whether we know it or not), we are more than prone to take it for granted. Should we not be more aware of what's around us, in general? This book offers up some thoughtful ideas on the subject.

I am a big fan of architecture critic Witold Rybczynski. If you haven't read his books HOME, or WAITING FOR THE WEEKEND, or CITY LIFE, this book is a good way to get familiar with many of the themes he has addressed time and again over his long and prolific career (e.g., the place of houses in people's lives, living smaller, the role of architects, the legacy of modernism, the place and meaning of ornament, the intrusion of fashion into the world of architecture, and the importance of the Vitruvian values of commodity, firmness and beauty in identifying "good" architecture). Many of these pieces were previously published in magazines and journals. Some are more thoughtful, well-researched, and even polemical; others read like Sunday magazine fluff pieces (not too many of these, though). Like many of Rybczynski's books, there are no illustrations. If you're like me, you'll find youself going to the Internet often to get images of some of the buildings, places, and people he mentions. It slows down the reading, but is necessary, it seems, to get the full impact of what Rybczynski is saying.

Planning on building a house, I was especially interested in Rybczynski's thoughts and insights about homes and what they should look like. From the start I was captivated. Wanting to be sleek and modern, I thought an architect would quickly confirm my ideas. Instead, at the start of the book Rybczynski, with reasoning, brings the reader back to the traditional home and approves of it; and makes me want to build one... and live in a lovely little neighborhood.
He moves beyond the house and Looking Around takes us into the cities and towns to look at public buildings like art museums. The history and progression that he packs into this book is very insightful.

He says, "I am not arguing for a historical style as much as for a historical attitude- deja-vu, as opposed to avant-garde. An awareness of history- of the successes and failures of the past should inform architectural design to a greater degree than it now does."

This is an easy reader.

I bought this book a long time ago, but never had the time to open it, then one day I was looking for a magazine to read in, you know, those intimate moments, and in the rush I grabed 'looking around'.

Fact is: I couldn't stop reading it. Even tough I am not what you'd call a lay-man on architectural issues, Witold's book really made me see that's possible to write about architecture without being too academic or technical. I can say that I've learned a great deal, not only about architecture, but about life.

my advice? buy it now!

If there is a theme to this book, it's "Pay Attention." Rybczynski encourages us to look around as we go around. He wants us to look at the buildings and look at our houses. It's so easy to walk the streets of our cities and towns and never even notice the buildings. He wants us to understand what makes some places special (or not). He wants us to see the art in the architecture. Rybczynski has written more than fifteen books and countless articles on architecture. He is an architect himself and has learned to look around.

This book is very approachable for those of us outside of the architecture intelligentsia. He references many examples to describe the historical context and impact of buildings. Many of the buildings he describes are famous enough to be familiar to most people and many are not so famous. He encourages us to think about our own houses, the architecture we've chosen as the setting for our lives. For example, do you live in a "period" home or one that has been made to look like a period home? Victorian? Modern? Postmodern? This book will be a lot of help as you set off to think about your surroundings. BTW, I found it very helpful to have Google Images close at hand so that I to look up the buildings and homes as I read about them. If you're really new to architecture, you might also want to read the great little primer, ABC of Architecture, by James F. O'Gorman.

This is an incredible book and I recommend it to anyone, whatever field you are in, you live in this world and may as well enjoy it.