Customer Reviews

Touch This Earth Lightly: Glenn Murcutt in His Own Words

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There are no books in architecture that are this sincere, candid, and honest. Glenn Murcutt's words through his interviews with Philip Drew are expressive and quite refreshing. In his own words, he explains how, where, and most importantly why he has developed his worldview. In the world of overenphasized aesthetics, Murcutt expresses his design philosophies in a more down to earth vocabulary and design. His upbringing in PNG, his parenting, and all of the experiences that he has had (traveling in Europe and around the World) has lead to his unique point of view of architecture and the world.

This is a great book to read. It is very easy to read, and it emphasizes the things that are truly important in life.

'Touch This Earth Lightly' is a compilation of Murcutt's various comments about certain aspects of his own architecture and architecture in general. Murcutt, who is a minimalist dealing with mostly house projects in coastal Australia, is one of the very few people who respond to nature this friendly. His designs encompass very economic use of resources, in addition to great integration with nature.
He responds to the structure in nature, and not the beauty in it. His shapes are defined to this respect. He thinks that there are no styles in architecture, but rather there are only ideas beneath designs. Read his book, and you'll learn a lot more his ideas. Well written, well illustrated, and well edited...

I saw Glenn Murcutt speak at USGBC's GREENbuild 2004 conference. He absolutely lit hearts on fire with his passion for his craft. This book is a GEM and it the lucky person who finds this treasure!