No mere survey of famous buildings, Kostof's History examines an inclusive spectrum of manmade structures: prehistoric huts and the TVA, the pyramids at Giza and the Rome railway station, the ziggurat and the department store. Indeed, Kostof considered every building worthy of attention, every struc[...]
Spiro Kostof's groundbreaking work, A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals, helped to reshape the study of architectural history. His book extended beyond the discussion of great monuments to find connections with ordinary dwellings, urbanism, and different cultures from around the world. W[...]
When the late Spiro Kostof's A History of Architecture appeared in 1985, it was universally hailed as a masterpiece--one of the finest books on architecture ever written. Now, updated and expanded, this classic reference continues to bring to readers the full array of civilization's architectural a[...]
Cities are among the most enduring and remarkable of human artefacts. This study explains how and why cities took the shape they did. Professor Kostof focuses on a number of themes - organic patterns, the grid, the city as diagram, the grand manner and the skyline - and interprets the hidden order o[...]