The Function of Ornament |  | Author: Farshid Moussavi
Creator: Michael Kubo
Publisher: Actar
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $18.00
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 55473
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 8496540502
Dewey Decimal Number: 729
EAN: 9788496540507
ASIN: 8496540502
Publication Date: January 15, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Architecture needs mechanisms that allow it to become connected to culture. It achieves this by continually capturing the forces that shape society as material to work with. Architecture's materiality is therefore a composite one, made up of visible forces (structural, functional, physical) as well as invisible forces (cultural, political, temporal). Architecture progresses through new concepts that connect with these forces, manifesting itself in new aesthetic compositions and affects. Ornament is the by-product of this process, through which architectural material is organized to transmit unique affects. This book is a graphic guide to ornaments in the twentieth century. It unveils the function of ornament as the agent for specific affects, dismantling the idea that ornament is applied to buildings as a discrete or non-essential entity. Each case operates through greater or lesser depth to exploit specific synergies between the exterior and the interior, constructing an internal order between ornament and material. These internal orders produce expressions that are contemporary, yet whose affects are resilient in time.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
 Excellent and Elegant June 8, 2009
archiman (houston tx usa)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is not a technical manual as a couple reviewers seems to wish, nor a survey of ornament in architecture. Nor does it ever claim to be such--reviewers should review a book not wish it was a different book. Instead it represents the results of graduate level research at Harvard Graduate School of Design into a revitalized understanding of the role of ornament in architecture and how one employs technical and material means to produce architecture effects and phenomena. As such the book is extremely clear, useful and elegantly designed and thoughtfully organized. Great for students and professional who want to think.
Great Case Studies February 8, 2008
Charles Crawfod
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Beautiful and useful; as a Professor of Architecture I will be recommending this volume to all of my students.
Nicely put together February 3, 2010
Joong Won Lee (Cambridge, MA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I guess, to me at least, the title of the book is bit misleading,
it should be "how to make an interesting building skins"
Because this book provides ample examples of great building skins of
contemporary (some past) architecture.
Graphics, analysis, and categorization are the 3 strong points of the book.
Each example is analyzed in the order of following:
1. elements (typically material)
2. key design concept
3. organization and assembly of key building skin
4. overall effect
For example, for Laban Dance Center by Herzog de Meuron, three different
colors and glasses are introduced, how they are used according to the program
inside, how the glasses are put together as double-layer enclosure, and
the daytime/ nighttime effects are analyzed.
The book speaks with graphics, limiting the number of words used.
The graphics were painstakingly achieved. Really delivering the message
clearly and concisely. Hence, essence of the project concept is easily
graspable, yet, at the same time, being graphics, it leaves room for
subjective interpretation.
Ornament redefined... January 25, 2010
A. Blandon (Nicaragua)
I purchased this book after a fellow colleague recommended it to me and I must say it's become one of my favorite books because of its explicit and clear way of explaining the concepts of the buildings selected. All architecture books should be written this way. Farshid did a great job of validating her standpoint of ornament... A concept that has been re-defined in this book.
 Nice presentation of some innovative architectural systems May 21, 2007
Mario Cipresso (Los Angeles, CA USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
In this graphic guide to building ornamentation in the twentieth century, Moussavi and Kubo have collected an interesting cross-section of architectural projects that demonstrate the mechanisms through which contemporary architecture connects itself to current culture.
Through the selected case study projects, the editors endeavor to illustrate the means through which ornamentation is the very essence of the building. Not being merely 'ornamental' and self-indulgent, the articulation presented is indeed the agent of the architect's ideas.
Various materials and effects are investigated ranging from 'dematerialized light' to 'relief patterns'. The impressive array of diagrams are extremely clear and useful. A typical system is defined through perspective views, sections, pattern diagrams, detailed assembly drawings and relevant notes.
If you are looking for component and systems analysis of projects such as Future Systems' amorphous Selfridges Department Store or Herzog and de Meuron's embossed copper skin at the De Young Museum; look no further.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
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