内容简介
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.
作者简介
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.
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精彩书评
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
探索人类文明的宏伟画卷:一部关于建筑奇迹的史诗 书名: The Story of Buildings: From the Pyramids to the Sydney Opera House and Beyond (建筑的故事:从金字塔到悉尼歌剧院及更远) 目标读者: 9-12岁(青少年及对世界历史、工程学和艺术有浓厚兴趣的读者) 装帧: 精装 图书简介: 拿起这本书,就如同接过了一把穿越时空的钥匙,准备踏上一段令人目眩神迷的旅程。我们并非仅仅要翻阅一本关于砖块、石头和钢筋的书籍,而是要深入探究人类智慧、文化信念以及不断演变的社会结构,这些都凝结在那些矗立于我们身边的宏伟结构之中。 本书的叙事核心,在于揭示建筑不仅仅是遮风避雨的实用工具,更是人类文明最清晰、最持久的编年史。从史前时代那些神秘而坚固的石阵,到现代都市中那些直插云霄的玻璃幕墙,每一座建筑都是一个时代精神的物化体现,诉说着建造者们对神明、对自然、对自身能力的理解与渴望。 第一部分:基石与神谕——古代世界的构造奇迹 我们的探险始于人类最早定居的时刻,那些用最原始的工具、依靠纯粹的集体意志所创造的奇迹。我们将首先聚焦于美索不达米亚的阶梯金字塔(Ziggurats),它们是早期神权政治的象征,是人类试图触及天堂的首次大胆尝试。我们探究这些巨大的土坯砖结构如何承载了复杂的宗教仪式和最早的城市规划理念。 随后,目光转向尼罗河畔。埃及的大金字塔不仅仅是法老的陵墓,它们是令人难以置信的几何学和后勤管理的胜利。本书会细致地剖析,古埃及人是如何在没有现代起重设备的情况下,精确计算角度、搬运数百万吨巨石的。这部分内容将激发读者对早期工程学精确性的惊叹。 地中海东部,我们邂逅了希腊的古典建筑。雅典卫城的帕特农神庙,是理性和美学的完美结合。我们将深入了解多立克、爱奥尼和科林斯柱式的细微差别,理解这些“比例的语言”如何定义了西方美学的基石,以及它们如何反映了民主社会的理想。紧接着,我们会探讨罗马人的革命性贡献——混凝土(Opus Caementicium)的发明,这项突破使得万神殿(Pantheon)那令人屏息的巨大无支撑穹顶成为可能。穹顶上的“眼”(Oculus)不仅是采光的开口,更是连接凡人与神灵的象征性通道。 第二部分:信仰的延伸与权力的彰显——中世纪的宏伟叙事 跨入中世纪,建筑的焦点转向了信仰的巩固。本书将详细阐述拜占庭式教堂,尤其是伊斯坦布尔的圣索菲亚大教堂(Hagia Sophia),它如何用其漂浮的巨型穹顶,首次将宗教空间体验推向极致,象征着东西方文明的交汇与融合。 随后,我们将进入欧洲的广阔原野,探索罗马式和哥特式大教堂的崛起。罗马式建筑以其厚重的墙体、拱形屋顶和堡垒般的外观,体现了中世纪早期对稳定与庇护的渴望。而哥特式建筑则是一场关于光线和高度的革命。我们将分解飞扶壁(Flying Buttresses)、尖拱和肋拱的精巧设计,理解这些结构创新如何将墙体转变为彩色玻璃的“幕布”,让内部空间充满了“天堂之光”。读者将学习到,建造一座中世纪大教堂,需要的不仅仅是石匠的技艺,更是一场跨越数代人的社区合作与信仰的凝聚。 第三部分:文艺复兴的回归与工业的崛起——从完美比例到钢铁骨架 文艺复兴时期,建筑师们重新拥抱古典的和谐与人体的尺度。本书将介绍布鲁内莱斯基(Brunelleschi)在佛罗伦萨大教堂上空完成的壮举,他凭借对古代工程学的深刻理解,独立设计并建造了那个无人能解的巨大穹顶,这标志着人类理性精神的回归。随后,我们将审视文艺复兴盛期和巴洛克风格如何利用动态的曲线和戏剧性的光影,来服务于更具情感驱动力的艺术表达。 然而,真正的范式转变发生在工业革命的蒸汽轰鸣之中。19世纪中叶,新材料——铸铁和后来的钢材——的出现,彻底打破了传统石材的限制。本书会介绍水晶宫(The Crystal Palace)如何在一瞬间改变了人们对“建筑”的认知,以及第一批摩天大楼在芝加哥的出现,如何将城市的天际线提升至前所未有的高度。我们讨论这些结构如何反映了快速的城市化、商业扩张和对效率的追求。 第四部分:现代的宣言与未来的展望——形随功能与多元的探索 进入20世纪,建筑思想经历了一场剧烈的“净化”运动。现代主义建筑师们,如勒·柯布西耶(Le Corbusier)和密斯·凡德罗(Mies van der Rohe),高喊着“形式追随功能”(Form Follows Function)的口号,摒弃装饰,追求纯粹的几何形态和对新材料——钢筋混凝土和玻璃——的诚实表达。我们将分析现代主义如何试图为工业化社会提供“机器般精确”的居住环境。 本书的结尾,我们将探讨后现代主义、解构主义以及当代建筑的多元面貌。我们不再满足于单一的“正确”风格。我们审视那些富有雕塑感和挑战性的作品,例如悉尼歌剧院,它如何以其贝壳般的结构,重新将建筑带回了艺术表达和文化象征的巅峰,引发了关于建筑美学和公共空间的激烈辩论。 通过对这些里程碑式建筑的细致考察,读者将不仅学会识别不同风格的特征,更重要的是,他们将理解建筑是如何作为一种“凝固的音乐”,记录了人类在不同历史阶段,对结构、美学、社会秩序和自身在宇宙中位置的深刻思考。这是一部邀请年轻读者思考:“我们建造的东西,最终将如何讲述我们的故事?” 的史诗级指南。