The Old Way of Seeing: How Architecture Lost Its Magic - And How to Get It Back [Paperback]

Jonathan Hale (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Architect Hale's manifesto describes the grace that old buildings possess and contemporary architecture lacks, along with his ideas for how this older ideal can be reclaimed.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Intended for the lay reader, this primer on design explores a number of interesting byways, from symbolism to scale, context, regulating lines, and pattern languages. Practiced New England architect and architectural writer Hale offers a paean to the past, more specifically a preindustrial past when, in his words, "one could walk down any street and be surrounded by harmonious buildings." It all began to fall apart in the 1830s, according to Hale, when the Greek Revival replaced substance with symbol. Hale revolts at the prospect of a rampant industrialism and everything else Modern Architecture implied: internationalism, uniformity, and universalism. Gentle, wise, and perceptive, he is a child of postmodernism. Recommended for public libraries.
Peter Kaufman, Boston Architectural Ctr.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039574010X
• ISBN-13: 978-0395740101
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #841,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YOU'LL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT?, July 11, 2000

By	Dick Bjornseth - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Old Way of Seeing: How Architecture Lost Its Magic - And How to Get It Back (Paperback)

The "old way of seeing" is a phrase that architect/author Hale coins that describes an aesthetic sense that cannot be easily categorized in terms like Historic, Modernism, or Post modernism. He builds a thorough argument calling for a combination of design that incorporates universal human fondness for pattern with a designer sense of intuition and play. He argues that such "old way of seeing" has been lost in much by both the designer and the wider public and that today's contemporary architecture and built environment is the result. It's not that Hale is a traditionalist or even a Neo-traditonalist... it's just that he argues that most contemporary architecture (and all design for that matter) deals too much with style and superficial symbols than with basic elements of design such as proportion, balance, and structure. At first this may sound like he is supporting a Modernist view of design, but this is not the case, He has some of his severest criticism of the sterility, blandness and generally lack of delight that results from this"form follows function" paradigm.

While Hale appreciates Post Modern's return to architecture as delight, he is equally critical of this movement as well, claiming that it focuses almost entirely on effect and status and symbol. He extends this criticism to todays' "Neo-traditonal" planners including Andres Duany and claims they are superficial and obsessed with codes and regulations which tend to deaden the designs.

The author covers a lot of ground in this subject of architecture, art and design, but it is always interesting reading, with good photos and illustrations, Hale's easy writing style brings to life the issues he talks about, though at times he seems to stretch to make a point. He uses a photo of Audrey Hepburn's face superimposed with lines and diagonals to illustrate the "Golden Section" proportion to the accuracy of 1/1000 of a decimal. I'm tempted to say that some of the points he makes are not particularly objective and are the result of a "You'll see it when you believe it" tendency (like when the believing Catholic sees a miracle of the face of the Virgin Mary in the stains on the side of a building.)

Overall, though this is a ground-breaking book on architecture and design, perhaps the most significant since Venturi's "Learning from Las Vegas" in the 1970's. It's well worth the time and energy to read. Ideas will spin from it long after one finishes the book. Just don't take every word as gospel.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book on the Subject, July 17, 2006

By	John M. Melody "jmelody" (Plymouth, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Old Way of Seeing: How Architecture Lost Its Magic - And How to Get It Back (Paperback)

I have six shelves filled with books on architecture, design, urban planning, and proportion, including several books by Christopher Alexander, Andres Duany, Jim Kunstler, Philip Langdon, Peter Katz, and Jane Holz Kay. This one's my favorite. It's the most accessible and useful. What differentiates it is that it provides abundant photos, with lines overlaying them, that very clearly illustrate the author's point. His writing style is easy and generous. It's been a while since I read it, but I'm pretty sure Hale does not advocate brutal Le Corbusier-inspired design. He might have used one picture to illustrate that these ancient principles can also be used in modern architecture.

Hale focuses on illustrating things like the proportion of individual windows and how their proportion and placement do or do not harmonize with the side of the house they're on. I believe the principles Hale explains perfectly complement those that Andres Duany writes about. The biggest difference is that Duany focuses on design issues at the larger scale of street widths, building heights, and walking distances. I think if Duany added design harmony at the building level, one very coherent, unified theory would be the result.

One take-away of this book for me is this: You're looking at a house or building and something about it pleases you, but you can't put your finger on exactly what. He clearly illustrates what those things are for you, which satisfies your logical left brain. On the other hand, he strongly encourages designers to use their intuitive right brain, which instinctively knows what proportions and details are pleasing in a building. In the end, you design with the right brain by letting it loose to play with form, and then you can fine tune using the regulating lines the left brain loves so much.

Far from advocating the "architect as auteur," Hale reminds us that almost no old houses were built using architects. Ordinary people, like farmers, built things of great beauty just by using the wise right brain to "eyeball" things like proportion, balance, harmony, and placement.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Explains why old buildings please us more than new ones, June 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Old Way of Seeing: How Architecture Lost Its Magic - And How to Get It Back (Paperback)

This book resides in a place of honor upon my bookshelf. If you've ever wondered why new buildings, even though they seem to try very hard, still pale in comparison to old buildings, this book will answer your questions beautifully.

Hale does a magnificent job describing that missing "something." He promotes rediscovering our aesthetic eye-- that part of us that knows unconsciously the pattern and geometry of nature, the balance of shape and form that brings us joy.

Hale gives the reader the best of both sides of the equation. He demonstrates for the reader how building elements line up along diagonals, circles, golden sections, etc. But more importantly, he describes how the architect, if she is to create a building imbued with the old beauty, must play and surrender to something wiser and larger and older than herself.

This book is a masterpiece. If you have even a passing interest in architecture, design, or urban planning, you will love it.