Awards

• Winner of Sir Banister Fletcher Prize of the Author's Club 1993
• Winner of Sir Banister Fletcher Prize of the Author's Club 1993.

Overview

Buildings and Power shifts the focus of architectural debate from the dominant themes of art and technology to an analysis of meaning in terms of social relations. Buildings are primarily social objects - their forms provide answers to questions we ask about ourselves, questions of power, order, classification and function. Everything about a building has social meaning - its form, function and spatial structure are each capable of analysis. Buildings and Power focuses on the emergence of new building types during the critical period between the Enlightenment and the French and Industrial Revolutions. The types are divided between those whioch control relations between people directly - schools, institutions of various kinds, buildings for cleaning and hygiene, clubs, assembly rooms and hotels; those which reproduce knowlege - museums, galleries, institutes; those used for production and exchange - mills, production utopias, markets, shops, and exchanges. Throughout, the book is lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, maps and plans. The book's concern is not for history but for the place of architecture in the modern world. It provokes questions about the ways we design, build and imagine our environment, about the ways architecture can liberate or confine our lives. Buildings and Power is addressed to those involved in the creation of the built environment - architects, planners and geographers; those engaged in the study of art and social history, social science and material culture; above all to anyone interested in buildings and what is written about them.

Full Product Details

Author:   Thomas A. Markus
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 21.00cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 28.00cm
Weight:   0.680kg
ISBN:  

9780415076654

ISBN 10:   041507665
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   30 September 1993
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: Some Underlying Ideas 1. The Shape of the Argument 2. Why Can We Use Buildings? Part II: Buildings and People 3. Formation 4. Re-Formation 5. Cleanliness is next to Godliness 6. Re-Creation Part III: Buildings and Knowledge 7. Visible Knowledge 8. Emphmeral Knowledge 9. Invisible Knowledge Part IV: Buildings and Things 10. Production 11. Exchange Part V: Concluding Remarks Notes Biography Knowledge

Reviews

.. . the illustrations and commentaries are brilliant.. <br>-RSA Journal <br> In this fascinating, beautifully researched study, Thomas Markus examines an array of new and emblematic building types in order to evoke the fresh pathologies of order and meaning which continue to map our relationship with the environment to this day. <br>-Michael Sorkin, Columbia University <br> Tom Markus has produced a unique, accessible, original, and very important book based on his long and wide experience of reading, thinking, teaching about and designing buildings. It puts together in one place most of the texts and articles in a field which has immensely expanded in the last decade--on the social meaning and production of building forms, as well as their histories. His discussion on the relation of buildings to knowledge, or the spatial representation of social forms, will be of interest to a very wide range of readers, whether in anthropology and architecture, or geography, sociologyand urban studies. The book is sure to become a key source of reference for many years. <br>-Anthony King, State University of New York, Binghamton <br> An original and richly illustrated study of 19th-century building typology, this new book concentrates not on aesthetics or technology but on the social implications of built form...One leaves this book with a fresh awareness of the power of building (and particularly of the power of interior spatial configuration) over human thought and action. <br>- Interior Design <br> What buildings mean and how to read them is the central subject of this book. In an age when architects are increasingly troubled by their difficulties in communicating through their buildings, thisis a very thoughtful and balanced exploration of this subject and a very welcome one for our post-modern age. <br>-Terry Farrell, architect <br>

'Markus's approach is not the only one available ... but it fulfils a vital function in raising more questions than it answers ... academic playground antics continue to hinder the development of new insights. Precisely because of this, the book will act as one of the bench marks to which the debate about architecture will refer. Everyone will find something to argue with, for this reason alone it should be read.' - Building Design 'You could call it the illustrated Foucault: it is an extraordinary, lavishly illustrated account ... the illustrations and commentaries are brilliant.' - RSA Journal 'The publishers and the printers of this book must be congratulated for the superb quality of the illustrations. Over 300 photographs, drawings and engravings are produced with silky black-and-white tones and contribute to making this work one of the best books on architectural and social history in a long time.' - Irish Times 'The outstanding feature is Markus' precision and exhaustive learning. To chart the historical evolution of even one type of building without error or omission is an achievement. Markus performs flawlessly across every field.. . the result of these endeavors, then, is a book of extraordinary and lasting value.' - Architecture Today 'Markus provides a valuable and powerful argument for placing the social context over evaluation of architecture as merely art, technological advancement or a component in an economic system ... The author's saluatory remark identifies the challenge to architects to demonstrate the added value of appropriate social meaning in their designs. This, though is one of the many questions addressed in this stimulating book, of which its own added value is its scholarship.' - Architectural Review 'Many of Markus' cases are unfamiliar and fascinating ... illustration is wonderfully profuse with plenty of plans. Much credit to the author for uncovering and bringing together all this interesting material.' - The Architects' Journal 'Dry but crunchy: architecture with morality.' - Modern Review 'This study is without doubt a very substantial contribution to our historical knowledge and makes the reader think much harder about the functional narrative and spatial organization of buildings.' - Journal of Environmental Psychology 'Rather than decoding architecture through words, understand it through images as Markus does, or better still go and see it.' - Times Higher Education Supplement 'The outstanding feature is Markus' precision and exhaustive learning. To chart the historical evolution of even one type of building without error or omission is an achievement. Markus performs flawlessly across every field ... the result of these endeavours, then, is a book of extraordinary and lasting value.'-Architecture Today

"'Markus's approach is not the only one available ... but it fulfils a vital function in raising more questions than it answers ... academic playground antics continue to hinder the development of new insights. Precisely because of this, the book will act as one of the bench marks to which the debate about architecture will refer. Everyone will find something to argue with, for this reason alone it should be read.' - Building Design 'You could call it the illustrated Foucault: it is an extraordinary, lavishly illustrated account ... the illustrations and commentaries are brilliant.' - RSA Journal 'The publishers and the printers of this book must be congratulated for the superb quality of the illustrations. Over 300 photographs, drawings and engravings are produced with silky black-and-white tones and contribute to making this work one of the best books on architectural and social history in a long time.' - Irish Times 'The outstanding feature is Markus' precision and exhaustive learning. To chart the historical evolution of even one type of building without error or omission is an achievement. Markus performs flawlessly across every field.. . the result of these endeavors, then, is a book of extraordinary and lasting value.' - Architecture Today 'Markus provides a valuable and powerful argument for placing the social context over evaluation of architecture as merely art, technological advancement or a component in an economic system ... The author's saluatory remark identifies the challenge to architects to demonstrate the added value of appropriate social meaning in their designs. This, though is one of the many questions addressed in this stimulating book, of which its own added value is its scholarship.' - Architectural Review 'Many of Markus' cases are unfamiliar and fascinating ... illustration is wonderfully profuse with plenty of plans. Much credit to the author for uncovering and bringing together all this interesting material.' - The Architects' Journal 'Dry but crunchy: architecture with morality.' - Modern Review 'This study is without doubt a very substantial contribution to our historical knowledge and makes the reader think much harder about the functional narrative and spatial organization of buildings.' - Journal of Environmental Psychology 'Rather than ""decoding"" architecture through words, understand it through images as Markus does, or better still go and see it.' - Times Higher Education Supplement 'The outstanding feature is Markus' precision and exhaustive learning. To chart the historical evolution of even one type of building without error or omission is an achievement. Markus performs flawlessly across every field ... the result of these endeavours, then, is a book of extraordinary and lasting value.'-Architecture Today"

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Thomas A. Markus

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