Customer Reviews

Twentieth Century Museums II (Architecture 3s) (v. 2)

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The previous reviewer seems to have written the right review for the wrong book... This is NOT a survey of modern museum architecture, and don't expect to find either Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bibao or Piano's Beyeler Foundation in Basel. Although I do not own this book, I want to stress that it covers only three buildings, but in remarkable depth, one each by Isozaki, Stirling, and Freed of Pei Cobb Freed. Each of the three books situates the context of the work within the architect's oeuvre, and comprises a section of top-notch photographs, as well as a selection of drawings, including construction details. I should make it clear that Phaidon's "Architecture 3S" series is a collection of hardcovers comprising three "Architecture in Detail" volumes each. I have only the best to say about the quality of the "Architecture in Detail" series, and pricewise the "Architecture 3S" series is a bargain: for less than the price of one "Architecture in Detail" volume one can buy three volumes bound together as an "Architecture 3S" title.

This book is not an art book; it is a reasonable list of extraordinary museum buildings including the most recents (Guggeheim museum in Bilbao). I was happy to re-discover Beyeler fondation in Basle (Switzerland) and some other famous masterpieces but a bit disappointed not to feel inspired in anyway by the way this book was designed.