by Benedict Zucchi
Combining architectural and
urban thinking in an unusual and engaging way, this book presents an
integrated approach to architectural theory and design. Leon Battista
Alberti’s assertion in his famous Renaissance treatise that ‘the city
is like a big house, and the house is in turn like a little city’ forms
the springboard for a series of reflections on architecture’s
relationship with urbanism and how their once intimate symbiosis,
unravelled by International Style Modernism, can be recovered.
Explicit
references to Alberti’s house-city phrase have been made by figures as
diverse as the architects Louis Kahn, Aldo Van Eyck, Denys Lasdun and
Niels Torp and novelist Italo Calvino. But, as the book shows, thinking
of buildings as little cities provides a new lens through which to
reappraise the contributions of many other architects, including Le
Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, Eliel Saarinen, Bernard
Rudofsky, Hans Scharoun, Leon Krier, Fumihiko Maki, Charles Correa and
Team 10.
In doing so, the author
identifies common themes that form an unexpected bridgehead between the
urban and architectural approaches of Antiquity, the Middle Ages,
Renaissance and 20th century. The book explores buildings from across
the globe, including lesser-known projects, such as Wright’s unbuilt
house in Italy or Saarinen’s master plan for Cranbrook Academy, as well
as more recent projects by Niels Torp, Behnisch Architekten, Sou
Fujimoto, Peter Barber and WOHA.
It
concludes with practical case studies of residential, health, education
and workplace projects from different countries, fulsomely illustrated
with many drawings and photographs. These show how architectural
design viewed through an urban lens provides a conceptual framework for
breaking down the scale of large buildings and integrating them with
their context. And crucially, these also show a very accessible way of
explaining evolving designs to the intended users and eliciting their
participation in the design process.
The
book offers a compelling approach to the design of projects at all
scales, within an ecological perspective: the sense that big and small,
cities and buildings must be approached holistically if we are to
reverse the degradation and depletion of our habitat, both natural and
man-made.
