Modern Housing Prototypes (Harvard Paperbacks) - Softcover

Sherwood, R

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674579429 ISBN 13: 9780674579422

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1990

Synopsis

The design of housing has commanded the attention of the greatest architects of the twentieth century. In this stunning volume, Roger Sherwood presents thirty-two notable examples of multi-family housing from many countries and four continents, selected for their importance as prototypes. Designed by such masters as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Alvar Aalto, they range from single-house clusters to row-houses, terrace houses, party-wall and large-courtyard housing, to urban high-rise towers and slabs. The thirty-two buildings or housing complexes are illustrated with photographs, site plans, floor plans, elevations, and marvelous axonometric drawings. In each case Mr. Sherwood gives background information on the project, mention, factors the architect had to take into consideration (social, environmental, financial), points out creative solutions to particular problems, and comments on special features of the design. Laymen as well as professionals will find his presentations enlightening. In the Introduction, Mr. Sherwood sets forth the basic principles of organization that apply to housing. He analyzes first the limited number of ways in which individual apartments or living units can be laid out (each type or plan lending itself to variations and permutations) and then the ways in which different units can be vertically and horizontally organized within a single building. Drawings and plans of more than eighty housing complexes in twenty countries accompany his analysis. Mr. Sherwood offers his book in the belief that there is no excuse for shoddy architecture; that no branch of architecture is more important than the design of human habitations; and that much is to be learned from the study of significant buildings of the recent past.

About this title

Review

Presented so clearly and concisely, Sherwood's projects may be easily compared and are comprehensible to those unfamiliar with housing design. The book itself is attractively organized, harmoniously balancing text, photograph, and drawing. The juxtaposition of these, as well as the use of color in selected axonometrics, adds not only to the beauty of this collection but also to the accessibility and clarity of the projects presented within.--The Yale Graduate Professional

By including idiosyncratic works, Sherwood has encompassed the best that 'modern' architecture has offered us to live in. His list of examples is difficult to fault and his drawings and informative text make this book well worth owning.--Journal of Architectural Education

About the Author

Roger Sherwood is a practicing architect and Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0674579429
• ISBN 13: 9780674579422
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 180