Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order

by Alexander Tzonis, Liane Lefaivre

Overview

This fascinating introduction to classical art and architecture is the first book to investigate the way classical buildings are put together as formal structures. It researches the generative rules, the poetics of composition that classical architecture shares with classical music, poetry, and drama, and is enriched by a variety of examples and an extensive analysis of compositional rules. The 205 line drawings make up a discourse of their own, a pictorial text that serves as an introductory theory of composition or basic design aid.

Drawing from Vitruvius, the poetics of Aristotle, the theories of classical architecture, music, and poetry since the Renaissance, and the poetics of the Russian formalists, the authors present classical architecture as a coherent system of architectural thinking that is capable of producing a tragic humanistic discourse, a public art with critical, moral, and philosophical meaning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262700313
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	10/16/1986
Series:	The MIT Press
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Alexander Tzonis taught at Harvard from 1967 to 1981 and is the author of several books on architecture and design.

Liane Lefaivre is Professor and Chair of History and Theory of Architecture, University of Applied Art, Vienna, and Research Associate at the Technical University of Delft.

Table of Contents

	Preface and Acknowledgments	ix
	Logos Opticos: The Logic of Composition	1
I	Rules of Composition
1	Taxis: the Framework	9
2	The Genera: The Elements	35
3	Symmetry: The Relations	117
II	Anthology of Classical Works
4	Architectural Scansion	171
5	Parataxis: The Architectural Parade	243
III	Why Classicism?
6	Entaxis: Confrontations and Conflicts	259
7	Critical Classicism: The Tragic Function	273
	References	289
	Illustration Sources	297
	Index of Terms	301
	Index of Names and Buildings	305

What People are Saying About This

Kenneth Frampton

Classical Architecture is surely the first work in English to attempt to assemble, classify, and demystify the ill-understood legacy of classical lore which is, in many respects, the very basis of architecture in the West.

Helen Searing

An essential work for anyone wrestling with the provocative questions of the validity of the classical tradition in Western architecture. This is a penetrating, superior, and original contribution to the recent literature.

Endorsement

An essential work for anyone wrestling with the provocative questions of the validity of the classical tradition in Western architecture. This is a penetrating, superior, and original contribution to the recent literature.

—Helen Searing, Alice Pratt Brown Professor of Art, Smith College

From the Publisher

Classical Architecture is surely the first work in English to attempt to assemble, classify, and demystify the ill-understood legacy of classical lore which is, in many respects, the very basis of architecture in the West.

—Kenneth Frampton

An essential work for anyone wrestling with the provocative questions of the validity of the classical tradition in Western architecture. This is a penetrating, superior, and original contribution to the recent literature.

—Helen Searing, Alice Pratt Brown Professor of Art, Smith College

Editorial Reviews

"Classical Architecture is surely the first work in English to attempt to assemble, classify, and demystify the ill-understood legacy of classical lore which is, in many respects, the very basis of architecture in the West."- Kenneth Frampton

& quot; Classical Architecture is surely the first work in English to attempt to assemble, classify, and demystify the ill-understood legacy of classical lore which is, in many respects, the very basis of architecture in the West.& quot; - Kenneth Frampton

" Classical Architecture is surely the first work in English to attempt to assemble, classify, and demystify the ill-understood legacy of classical lore which is, in many respects, the very basis of architecture in the West." - Kenneth Frampton

From the Publisher