Nonfiction RC #7

I read this book for the Nonfiction Reading Challenge 2014.

The Look of Architecture - Witold Rybczynski, 2000

This is a transcription of lectures the writer made at the New York Public Library at the turn of our century. The topic is the role of fashion on architecture. Rybczynski asserts that architects bristle and shudder when asked about what style has influenced them. Their fear, he suspects, is that answering clearly would put them in a box and stifle their creativity. His overview of the coming and going of styles such as the Gothic and Classical provides much interesting reading for a reader – like me – who know little about this topic. At 144 pages, this is short and agreeable like his other books about odd familiar things such as Waiting for the Weekend (the social history of the modern weekend) and Home: A Short History of an Idea.