Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

R.J. van Pelt and C.W. Westfall, Architectural Principles in the Age of Historicism , Yale University Press, 1991, Hardback, £35, ISBN 0-300-04999-4.

R.J. van Pelt and C.W. Westfall, Architectural Principles in the Age of Historicism , Yale... Book Reviews Pelt and C.W. Westfall, Architectural Principles in the Historicism, Yale University Press, 1991, Hardback, £35, R.J. van Age of isbn 0-300-04999-4. The title of this book refers to Rudolf Wittkower's work Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (1947). While Wittkower's classic study addressed the principles which guided architectural thought and practice during the Renaissance, this book attempts to question the relationship between architectural history and contemporary practice through appraising the present in terms of its situation within the Age of Historicism. The Age of Historicism is defined as 'the epoch when people operate(d) on the assumption "that human affairs can be adequately understood 'historically', that is, by tracing them to their origins and describing their relationship to a process of development through time" (p. 2). Both authors concur about the problems of relativism and historicism in the study of the history of architecture, which make it difficult to extrapolate principles from the past to guide present practice. So far so good. This is a 'wordy' book consisting of some 400 pages of text organised into three parts, the central one of which takes the form of a debate. From the initial point of agreement, the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Architectural Heritage Edinburgh University Press

R.J. van Pelt and C.W. Westfall, Architectural Principles in the Age of Historicism , Yale University Press, 1991, Hardback, £35, ISBN 0-300-04999-4.

Schafer, S.
Architectural Heritage , Volume 3 (1): 103 – Jan 1, 1992
Download PDF
2 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/edinburgh-university-press/r-j-van-pelt-and-c-w-westfall-architectural-principles-in-the-age-of-nm1R2KpKSj

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
Copyright © Edinburgh University Press
Subject
Book Reviews
ISSN
1350-7524
eISSN
1755-1641
DOI
10.3366/arch.1992.3.1.103
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Book Reviews Pelt and C.W. Westfall, Architectural Principles in the Historicism, Yale University Press, 1991, Hardback, £35, R.J. van Age of isbn 0-300-04999-4. The title of this book refers to Rudolf Wittkower's work Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (1947). While Wittkower's classic study addressed the principles which guided architectural thought and practice during the Renaissance, this book attempts to question the relationship between architectural history and contemporary practice through appraising the present in terms of its situation within the Age of Historicism. The Age of Historicism is defined as 'the epoch when people operate(d) on the assumption "that human affairs can be adequately understood 'historically', that is, by tracing them to their origins and describing their relationship to a process of development through time" (p. 2). Both authors concur about the problems of relativism and historicism in the study of the history of architecture, which make it difficult to extrapolate principles from the past to guide present practice. So far so good. This is a 'wordy' book consisting of some 400 pages of text organised into three parts, the central one of which takes the form of a debate. From the initial point of agreement, the

Journal

Architectural Heritage – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Jan 1, 1992

There are no references for this article.