Featherweights: Light, Mobile and Floating Architecture (Architecture in Focus) (Hardcover)

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Product Description

From Bruno Taut’s glass house to the Crystal Palace, geodesic domes to the Millennium Dome, this lavishly illustrated exploration of lightness in architecture explains how and why the movement began, and shows where it will take us in the future.

Architecture has been moving towards lightness since the beginning of the twentieth century. As new building materials become available, and as land disappears, architects have focused on efficiency, impermanence and flexibility in structures. Illustrating the achievements of the most visionary architects of the past and present, Featherweights traces the evolution of lightness in architecture from the fantastic glass structures of the early twentieth century to the latest hi-tech materials for the third millennium. Covering everything from pre-fab houses to inflatable buildings, utopian architecture to virtual cities, this fascinating exploration illustrates the ongoing dialogue between shelter and society and offers exciting glimpses into a future in which gravity is optional.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 159 pages
• Publisher: Prestel Publishing; illustrated edition edition (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3791328565
• ISBN-13: 978-3791328560
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,546,557 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About This Book, October 30, 2008

By	Theseus "theseus" (US of A) - See all my reviews

A large format trade paperback, released without dustcover. 160 pp on heavy stock with over 200 color illustrations. Glossary, Endnotes, and a Selected Bibliography.

Table of Contents Highlights

5 Pioneers of Light Architecture
- Building With Light: Bruno Taut's Glass Fantasies
- Light and Heavy: Eero Saarinen's Trans World Airlines Terminal
- Geometry: Richard Buckminster Fuller's Visions
- Master of the Universe: Archigram's Pencil Revolution
- Escaping from Slab Construction: Ulrich Muther

Lightweight Construction
- Bubble: Frei Otto
- Werner Sobek

Membranes and Light Materials
- Richard Rogers' Millenium Dome
- Membraines Over Plush
- Andreas Heller's LiebesLeben and SehnSucht
- Benno Bauer's Culture Center

Inflatable Architecture

Modern Nomads
- Shigeru Ban's Curtain Wall House
- A House on Wheels
- Moritz Hauschild's Summerhous Projects

Building a World of Bits and Bytes
- Architectural Animations
- Gehry's Deutsche Genossenschafts Bank
- Johannes Herold's Archivision Project
- Views of the Future of the City

Architecture in Space
- Richard Horden's and Andreas Vogler's Space Design Project
- Room With a View