內容簡介
Aspiring architects will be in their element! Explore this illustrated narrative history of buildings for young readers, an amazing construction in itself.We spend most of our lives in buildings. We make our homes in them. We go to school in them. We work in them. But why and how did people start making buildings? How did they learn to make them stronger, bigger, and more comfortable? Why did they start to decorate them in different ways? From the pyramid erected so that an Egyptian pharaoh would last forever to the dramatic, machine-like Pompidou Center designed by two young architects, Patrick Dillon’s stories of remarkable buildings — and the remarkable people who made them — celebrates the ingenuity of human creation. Stephen Biesty’s extraordinarily detailed illustrations take us inside famous buildings throughout history and demonstrate just how these marvelous structures fit together.
作者簡介
Patrick Dillon is an architect and historian. He is the author of
The Story of Britain from the Norman Conquest to the European Union, a narrative history for children, and of two highly acclaimed history books for adults. On writing
The Story of Buildings, he says, "My two favorite things are stories and buildings. Telling stories about buildings is as good as it gets." Patrick Dillon lives in London.
Stephen Biesty is the creator of
Stephen Biesty’s Incredible Cross-Sections, which has sold more than a million copies worldwide since its publication in 1992. He lives in Somerset, England.
內頁插圖
精彩書評
Clear explanations of basic building concepts (cantilevers, arches and domes, reinforced concrete) are balanced with discussions of more abstract principles such as symmetry, geometry, and pattern. But the volume is truly set apart by Biesty’s elaborate, meticulously detailed, and clearly labeled drawings (some stretching across two large-format pages plus two half-page fold-outs). ... Biesty here adds a kaleidoscopic yet tightly integrated visual dimension that will transfix readers.
—School Library Journal (starred review)
A diverse selection of buildings are highlighted... Working with colored pencil, Biesty uses a gentler line than in his hyperattentive Cross-Sections books, but there’s no loss of detail: you could, if so inclined, count the steps leading up to the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City. Each picture is thoroughly but unobtrusively annotated... The main text has a nice narrative flow that links the buildings and eras together, and Dillon has a gift for evocation as well as explanation. ... [I]ts absorbing pictures and spacious design invite you to start where you like. You’ll go back for more. An index and a timeline, fascinating in its own right, are appended.
—The Horn Book (starred review)
Biesty’s precisely drawn, finely detailed architectural views supply the highlights for this ... survey of homes and prominent buildings through the ages. ... Broad of historical (if not international) scope and with illustrations that richly reward poring over.
—Kirkus Reviews
This large, handsome volume combines broad discussions of architectural history with exceptional drawings of significant buildings from ancient to modern times. ... An English architect, Dillon clearly knows his subject and presents it in a readable way. ... Intricate and precise, Biesty’s colored-pencil drawings offer viewers a good sense of the scale as well as the form and presence of each building. Through his signature cross sections, details of interiors and construction can be seen as well.
—Booklist
The best buildings are more than the sum of their prosaic parts—they are meeting places of imagination and practicality, embodiments of man both as he is and as he aspires to be. It is these rather elusive architectural qualities that Stephen Biesty captures brilliantly in his warm, finely drawn illustrations for
"The Story of Buildings." Here, in honey-colored drawings on creamy paper, young readers ages 10-16 (and their parents) can explore famous structures along a timelines from antiquity to the present. ... [A] sympathetic and highly readable chronicle of man's most enduring means of cultural expression.
—The Wall Street Journal
Ambitious... Stephen Biesty supplies his signature cutaways for sixteen of the buildings, and these details, together with truly informative insets, are likely to captivate reader attention.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
前言/序言
探索人類文明的宏偉畫捲:一部關於建築奇跡的史詩 書名: The Story of Buildings: From the Pyramids to the Sydney Opera House and Beyond (建築的故事:從金字塔到悉尼歌劇院及更遠) 目標讀者: 9-12歲(青少年及對世界曆史、工程學和藝術有濃厚興趣的讀者) 裝幀: 精裝 圖書簡介: 拿起這本書,就如同接過瞭一把穿越時空的鑰匙,準備踏上一段令人目眩神迷的旅程。我們並非僅僅要翻閱一本關於磚塊、石頭和鋼筋的書籍,而是要深入探究人類智慧、文化信念以及不斷演變的社會結構,這些都凝結在那些矗立於我們身邊的宏偉結構之中。 本書的敘事核心,在於揭示建築不僅僅是遮風避雨的實用工具,更是人類文明最清晰、最持久的編年史。從史前時代那些神秘而堅固的石陣,到現代都市中那些直插雲霄的玻璃幕牆,每一座建築都是一個時代精神的物化體現,訴說著建造者們對神明、對自然、對自身能力的理解與渴望。 第一部分:基石與神諭——古代世界的構造奇跡 我們的探險始於人類最早定居的時刻,那些用最原始的工具、依靠純粹的集體意誌所創造的奇跡。我們將首先聚焦於美索不達米亞的階梯金字塔(Ziggurats),它們是早期神權政治的象徵,是人類試圖觸及天堂的首次大膽嘗試。我們探究這些巨大的土坯磚結構如何承載瞭復雜的宗教儀式和最早的城市規劃理念。 隨後,目光轉嚮尼羅河畔。埃及的大金字塔不僅僅是法老的陵墓,它們是令人難以置信的幾何學和後勤管理的勝利。本書會細緻地剖析,古埃及人是如何在沒有現代起重設備的情況下,精確計算角度、搬運數百萬噸巨石的。這部分內容將激發讀者對早期工程學精確性的驚嘆。 地中海東部,我們邂逅瞭希臘的古典建築。雅典衛城的帕特農神廟,是理性和美學的完美結閤。我們將深入瞭解多立剋、愛奧尼和科林斯柱式的細微差彆,理解這些“比例的語言”如何定義瞭西方美學的基石,以及它們如何反映瞭民主社會的理想。緊接著,我們會探討羅馬人的革命性貢獻——混凝土(Opus Caementicium)的發明,這項突破使得萬神殿(Pantheon)那令人屏息的巨大無支撐穹頂成為可能。穹頂上的“眼”(Oculus)不僅是采光的開口,更是連接凡人與神靈的象徵性通道。 第二部分:信仰的延伸與權力的彰顯——中世紀的宏偉敘事 跨入中世紀,建築的焦點轉嚮瞭信仰的鞏固。本書將詳細闡述拜占庭式教堂,尤其是伊斯坦布爾的聖索菲亞大教堂(Hagia Sophia),它如何用其漂浮的巨型穹頂,首次將宗教空間體驗推嚮極緻,象徵著東西方文明的交匯與融閤。 隨後,我們將進入歐洲的廣闊原野,探索羅馬式和哥特式大教堂的崛起。羅馬式建築以其厚重的牆體、拱形屋頂和堡壘般的外觀,體現瞭中世紀早期對穩定與庇護的渴望。而哥特式建築則是一場關於光綫和高度的革命。我們將分解飛扶壁(Flying Buttresses)、尖拱和肋拱的精巧設計,理解這些結構創新如何將牆體轉變為彩色玻璃的“幕布”,讓內部空間充滿瞭“天堂之光”。讀者將學習到,建造一座中世紀大教堂,需要的不僅僅是石匠的技藝,更是一場跨越數代人的社區閤作與信仰的凝聚。 第三部分:文藝復興的迴歸與工業的崛起——從完美比例到鋼鐵骨架 文藝復興時期,建築師們重新擁抱古典的和諧與人體的尺度。本書將介紹布魯內萊斯基(Brunelleschi)在佛羅倫薩大教堂上空完成的壯舉,他憑藉對古代工程學的深刻理解,獨立設計並建造瞭那個無人能解的巨大穹頂,這標誌著人類理性精神的迴歸。隨後,我們將審視文藝復興盛期和巴洛剋風格如何利用動態的麯綫和戲劇性的光影,來服務於更具情感驅動力的藝術錶達。 然而,真正的範式轉變發生在工業革命的蒸汽轟鳴之中。19世紀中葉,新材料——鑄鐵和後來的鋼材——的齣現,徹底打破瞭傳統石材的限製。本書會介紹水晶宮(The Crystal Palace)如何在一瞬間改變瞭人們對“建築”的認知,以及第一批摩天大樓在芝加哥的齣現,如何將城市的天際綫提升至前所未有的高度。我們討論這些結構如何反映瞭快速的城市化、商業擴張和對效率的追求。 第四部分:現代的宣言與未來的展望——形隨功能與多元的探索 進入20世紀,建築思想經曆瞭一場劇烈的“淨化”運動。現代主義建築師們,如勒·柯布西耶(Le Corbusier)和密斯·凡德羅(Mies van der Rohe),高喊著“形式追隨功能”(Form Follows Function)的口號,摒棄裝飾,追求純粹的幾何形態和對新材料——鋼筋混凝土和玻璃——的誠實錶達。我們將分析現代主義如何試圖為工業化社會提供“機器般精確”的居住環境。 本書的結尾,我們將探討後現代主義、解構主義以及當代建築的多元麵貌。我們不再滿足於單一的“正確”風格。我們審視那些富有雕塑感和挑戰性的作品,例如悉尼歌劇院,它如何以其貝殼般的結構,重新將建築帶迴瞭藝術錶達和文化象徵的巔峰,引發瞭關於建築美學和公共空間的激烈辯論。 通過對這些裏程碑式建築的細緻考察,讀者將不僅學會識彆不同風格的特徵,更重要的是,他們將理解建築是如何作為一種“凝固的音樂”,記錄瞭人類在不同曆史階段,對結構、美學、社會秩序和自身在宇宙中位置的深刻思考。這是一部邀請年輕讀者思考:“我們建造的東西,最終將如何講述我們的故事?” 的史詩級指南。