Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: Re-cognizing The Architectural Body In The Early Italian Renaissance

The enigmatic, polyglot Hypnerotomachia Poliphili -- the inspiration for the bestselling novel The Rule of Four -- has fascinated architects and historians since its publication in 1499. Part fictional narrative and part scholarly treatise, richly illustrated with wood engravings, the book is an extreme case of erotic furor, aimed at everything -- especially architecture -- that the protagonist, Poliphilo, encounters in his quest for his beloved, Polia. Among the instances of the book's manifesto-like character is Polia's tirade defending the right of women to express their own sexuality, probably the first sustained argument of this type, which lifts the book's erotic theme from the realm of ribaldry to the more daring one of sexual politics. Liane Lefaivre offers the closest critical-theoretical reading of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili to date, placing it within both the historical context of the quattrocento and the rethinking of the metaphor of the architectural body.Lefaivre is the first to attribute this strange, dreamlike book definitively to none other than the arch-rationalist Leon Battista Alberti. Intended as his final text, she argues, the book is the legacy of a humanist passionate about his life's work, a treatise on the role of dreamwork in design by one of the most creative minds of the Renaissance, and a manifesto in defense of humanism by a man who had been dismissed by an anti-humanist pope after a thirty-year career in the papal service.

Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: Re-Cognizing the Architectural Body in the Early Italian Renaissance

Literature & Fiction

Lefaivre, Liane

History & Criticism

Mit Pr

A critical-theoretical reading of the strange, dreamlike work of Leon Battista Alberti.
The enigmatic, polyglot Hypnerotomachia Poliphili―the inspiration for the bestselling novel The Rule of Four―has fascinated architects and historians since its publication in 1499. Part fictional narrative and part scholarly treatise, richly illustrated with wood engravings, the book is an extreme case of erotic furor, aimed at everything―especially architecture―that the protagonist, Poliphilo, encounters in his quest for his beloved, Polia. Among the instances of the book's manifesto-like character is Polia's tirade defending the right of women to express their own sexuality, probably the first sustained argument of this type, which lifts the book's erotic theme from the realm of ribaldry to the more daring one of sexual politics. Liane Lefaivre offers the closest critical-theoretical reading of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili to date, placing it within both the historical context of the quattrocento and the rethinking of the metaphor of the architectural body. Lefaivre is the first to attribute this strange, dreamlike book definitively to none other than the arch-rationalist Leon Battista Alberti. Intended as his final text, she argues, the book is the legacy of a humanist passionate about his life's work, a treatise on the role of dreamwork in design by one of the most creative minds of the Renaissance, and a manifesto in defense of humanism by a man who had been dismissed by an anti-humanist pope after a thirty-year career in the papal service.

Arts & Photography

Architecture

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.

Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order

Tzonis, Alexander

MIT Press]

Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization: Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World

This book remains the definitive introductory text on the theory and history of regionalist architecture in the context of globalization. It addresses issues of identity, diversity, community, inequality, geopolitics, and sustainability. From the authors who coined the concept of Critical Regionalism, this new edition enhances the understanding of the complex evolution of regionalism and its rival, unchecked globalization. 
Covering a rich selection of the most outstanding examples of design from all over the world, Liane Lefaivre and Alexander Tzonis, who introduced the concept of Critical Regionalism to architecture, present an enlightening, concise historical analysis of the endurance of regionalism and the ceaseless drive for globalization. New case studies include current cutting-edge projects in Japan, Africa, China, and the United States. 
Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization offers undergraduate and graduate students of architecture, geography, history, environmental studies, and other related fields an accessible, vivid, and scholarly perspective of this major conflict as it relates to the design and to the future of the human-made environment.

Business & Money

International

Routledge

A cognitive history of the emergence of modern architecture. Cutting across disciplinarian and institutional divisions as we know them today, this book reconstructs developments within the framework of a cognitive history of the past. Modern is here taken to mean the radical re-thinking of architecture from the end of the tenth century in Europe to the end of the eighteenth century. Among the key debates that mark the period are those that oppose tradition to innovation, canon to discovery, geometrical formality to natural picturesqueness, the functional to the hedonistic.

The Emergence of Modern Architecture

The definitive introductory book on the theory and history of regionalist architecture in the context of globalization, this text addresses issues of identity, community, and sustainability along with a selection of the most outstanding examples of design from all over the world. Alex Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre give a readable, vivid, scholarly account of this major conflict as it relates to the design of the human-made environment. Demystifying the reasons behind how globalization enabled creativity and brought about unprecedented wealth but also produced new wastefulness and ecological destruction, the book also looks at how regionalism has also tended to confine, tearing apart societies and promoting destructive consumerist tourism.

The definitive introductory book on the theory and history of regionalist architecture in the context of globalization, this text addresses issues of identity, community, and sustainability along with a selection of the most outstanding examples of design from all over the world. Alex Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre give a readable, vivid, scholarly account of this major conflict as it relates to the design of the human-made environment. Demystifying the reasons behind how globalization enabled creativity and brought about unprecedented wealth but also produced new wastefulness and ecological destruction, the book also looks at how regionalism has also tended to confine, tearing apart societies and promoting destructive consumerist tourism.

Tropical Architecture presents a selection of essays by architectural historians and theoreticians on key issues in tropical architecture today. Alongside these are examples of work (both architectural and urbanist) from leading tropical architecture practitioners - including emerging practitioners and established architectural stars. Contributors include Ken Yeang, Michael Pearce, Charles Correa and many more.

Tropical Architecture: Critical Regionalism in the Age of Globalization

Stagno, Bruno

Academy Press

Architecture in Europe since 1968 : Memory and Invention

Winner of an American Institute of Architects Award, this book surveys twenty years of a period characterized by conflict between tradition and invention, modern and anti-modern, and by an abundance of disparate design solutions. The epoch begins with the completion in 1972 of the first commissions embodying the ideas that sprang out of the events of 1968--a year when student unrest and political upheaval crystallized new intellectual and cultural attitudes. It ends in the early 1990s, a time when both Modernism and earlier traditions began to be reappraised. Over seventy-five projects are presented, with critical essays, photographs, drawings, site diagrams, and construction details. Extensive documentation includes background data on each project, bibliographies, and biographies, with contributions from Jean-Louis Cohen, Lucius Burckhardt, Fritz Neumeyer, and Peter Rice.

Architecture in Europe Since 1968: Memory and Invention

Thames&Hudson

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lefaivre, Liane. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Lefaivre, Liane

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lefaivre, Liane. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: Re-Cognizing the Architectural Body in the Early Italian Renaissance

Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: Re-cognizing The Architectural Body In The Early Italian Renaissance

Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order

Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization: Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World

Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization: Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World

The Emergence of Modern Architecture

Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization: Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World

Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization: Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World

Tropical Architecture: Critical Regionalism in the Age of Globalization

Architecture in Europe Since 1968: Memory and Invention