Overview

Containing over 6,000 entries from Aalto to Zwinger and written in a clear and concise style, this authoritative dictionary covers architectural history in detail, from ancient times to the present day. It also includes concise biographies of hundreds of architects from history (excluding living persons), from Sir Francis Bacon and Imhotep to Liang Ssu-ch'eng and Francis Inigo Thomas. The text is complemented by over 260 beautiful and meticulous line drawings, labelled cross-sections, and diagrams. These include precise drawings of typical building features, making it easy for readers to identify particular period styles. This third edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture has been extensively revised and expanded, with over 900 new entries including hundreds of definitions of garden and landscape terms such as Baroque garden, floral clock, hortus conclusus, and Zen garden-design. Each entry is followed by a mini-bibliography, with suggestions for further reading. The full bibliography to the first edition (previously only available online) has also been fully updated and expanded, and incorporated into this new edition.This is an essential work of reference for anyone with an interest in architectural and garden history. With clear descriptions providing in-depth analysis, it is invaluable for students, professional architects, art historians, and anyone interested in architecture and garden design, and provides a fascinating wealth of information for the general reader.

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9780199674985

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Reviews

...definitions are not only elegantly concise, they often sparkle with sententious wit. Give me this pleasingly well written dictionary any day. Christopher Catling, Salon

Anyone seeking a single volume dictionary of architecture... has, in fact, only one choice, and that is Curl. Once you have Curl's dictionary on your shelf, it rapidly becomes indispensable. C20 The Magazine of the Twentieth Century The triumph of this volume is Curl's compositions... This is an ambitious work and a successful one, which will find a place in most general and specialist collections. David Harrison, Reference Reviews This is an immensely ambitious book...On accuracy, Curl can hardly be faulted. His entries are eminently reliable. Dan Cruickshank, World Architecture, July/August 1999 Handsomely demonstrates that a work of reference can be comprehensive and a polished piece of literature in its own right...Delightful touches of irony emerge in entries where the author's preferences peep through without compromising scholarly integrity. Jennifer Freeman, Building Design, 13.8.99 splendid...a smasher...you can't have a more concise, entertaining, and informative guide to the words of architecture. Peter Davey, Architectural Review The best introduction to a broad understanding and appreciation of architecture is a good dictionary. James Stevens Curl's is one of the best available. [...] Curl's dictionary informs and delights. [...] there is no better source of architectural reference available at the price Anthony Symondson SJ, Catholic Herald

Author Information

Professor James Stevens Curl is a leading architectural historian. His many books include Funerary Monuments & Memorials in St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh (2013); Freemasonry & the Enlightenment: Architecture, Symbols, & Influences (2011-an earlier version of which won (1992) the Sir Banister Fletcher Award as Best Book of the Year); Spas, Wells, & Pleasure-Gardens of London (2010); Victorian Architecture: Diversity & Invention (2007); and The Honourable The Irish Society and the Plantation of Ulster, 1608-2000 (2000). He contributed to, and edited, the scholarly monograph Kensal Green Cemetery: The Origins and Development of the General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, London, 1824-2001 (2001), the first major study of any nineteenth-century cemetery in the world. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, was twice Visiting Fellow at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, and is currently Professor of Architecture at the University of Ulster. Dr Susan Wilson is an historian with an especial interest in garden architecture, landscape aesthetics, and places of commemoration. Her doctorate was conferred (2010) by the University of Bristol for her study of the 'Swiss Garden Cottage: the origins of the châlet-style in British architecture'. She published her early findings in Exercises in Translation: Swiss-British Cultural Exchange (2006). In 2013 she chaired an interdisciplinary conference-session on the Rustic Tradition in Garden Art in New York. She taught the history of the applied and decorative arts at Chelsea College of Art and Design (2000-6), and gained recognition for her teaching practice as a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (2007). She has collaborated with Professor Stevens Curl on this edition of the Dictionary since 2012. Awarded (2012) the Opler Grant for Emerging Scholars by the Society of Architectural Historians (USA), she is also an Academic Member of the Landscape Institute.

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