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Alberti, Leon Battista. On The Art of Building. Rykwert trans.MIT Press 1991. An1486 version of architectural theory.
Alexander, Christopher. The Timeless Way of Building. Theory of design that far surpasses his Pattern Language.
Anderson, Stanford. Planning for Diversity and Choice. A seminal work examining planner's-architect's views of how one anticipates changes over time, time itself, and the implications of these views on the affected cultures. Good review of Cultural Pluralism issues.
Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. A philosophic investigation into the phenomena of space. Relates imagination, poetry and logic to cultural pre-dispositions-appreciations of phenomena.
Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities. Harcourt Brace72. Poetic reading of a city of the heart.
Cullen, Gorden. Concise Townscape. Van Nostrum. 78. A nice collection of approaches to observing settings through drawing.
Durrell, Lawrence. Spirit of Place. Through letters to friends, from his Mediterranean haunt, a strong view of culture in its relationship to its landscape is established. Perhaps this work inspires me most in my sabbatical quest.
Francis and Hester. The Meaning of Gardens. MIT Press 90. Ideas and theories of gardens as places.
Hall, E.T. Beyond Culture. An argument for the reexamination of culture's difficulties, the language used to describe it, and so forth. Examines unique qualities of particular cultures and argues for their unknowability except within their own group. Positions cultural change before technological prowess.
Hardin. The Tragedy of the Commons, Smithsonian Magazine. Reveals culture's challenges to know itself prior to technical and marketplace quick-fixes. Examines traditional English village commons, loss of community good in face of gains by few as resources become limited.
Holl, Stephen. Anchoring. Princton Press. Rational theory about form and function. Interesting site notions.
Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Urban values in spite of the will of misguided developers, politicians and do-gooders.
Kostof, Spiro. A History of Architecture, Settings and Rituals. A survey of monuments and vernacular architecture, world wide, focusing on why people build, their rituals and so forth.
Krier, Rob. Elements of Architecture. Contemporary take on classical European approaches to composition. Urban oriented.
Kroll, Lucien. An Architecture of Complexity. MIT Press. 87. Theory of architecture relating form to user involvement.
Lynch, Kevin. Site Planning. MIT Press. Classic readable work on design processes and planning attitudes.
Lynch, Kevin. Image of the City. MIT Press. Classic work demonstrating ways that people image their places of work, neighborhood and so forth. Not a guidebook.
LeCorbusier. Towards a New Architecture. 1931. Dover 86. The master's manifesto.
Lyford. The Airtight Cage. Interviews with inner city residents (N.Y.C.) about "cultural ghettos" that are perceptually rooted.
Moore, Charles. Dimensions. Readable theory of a few good California places.
Moore, Charles. Body, Soul and Memory. A good intro to architectural sensibilities, especially movement.
Moore and Lyndon. Chambers for a Memory Palace. MIT Press. 94. A significant book about the ways that architect's think, the great places of the world, etc.
Moore, Mitchell, Turnbull. The Poetics of Gardens. MIT Press. Relates architecture and garden places through theory.
Mumford, Lewis. The Pentagon of Power, the Myth of the Machine. Critique of contemporary symbolism relative to man's quest for power and immortality.
Pye, David. The Nature of Design and The Nature of Craftsmanship. Reinhold. Tells it like it is.
Peattie, Lisa and Bill Porter. View from the Barrio. Critical review of architect's-planner's attempts to design a new community for a culture substantially unlike their own. Search for relevant processes, not forms.
Perez-Gomez, Alberto. Science and Architecture. Critique of cultural views about science and technology as the ever-expanding saving option for mankind. Argues "technical wasteland" position.
Rappaport, Amos. House, Form and Culture. An anthropologist's view of how houses store information about culture.
Rossi, Aldo. The Architecture of the City. MIT Press.82. Interesting history-theory of architecture through the marxist's eyes of the city.
Tafuri, Manfredo. Theories and History in Architecture. A Marxist historian's examination of revolutionary and evolutionary movements in art-architecture. Argues the cultural clarification role for art.
Twan, Yi-Fu. Topophilia. Examining cross-cultural symbolism used in the design of houses, villages, and cities.
Venturi, Robert. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. Demarcates the silliness of modern theories (without invalidating their usefulness). Father of pomo attitudes.
Places
California Missions. Any and all, especially those such as San Miguel that have remained unrestored.
FFLWright works. Join the European students' yearly pilgrimage in visiting every Wright structure in California.
Santa Monica. Every Moss, Morphosis, Gehry, Fisher, Marmol, Israel, Himmelblau place that you can find.
Bay area. Every Frank Church garden and Maybeck building.
Painting and Sculpture
Delacroix, "Liberty Leading the People," patriotic views.
Madox Brown, "Work," explores moral function of art.
Daumier, "Rue Transnonain," outrage with social victims.
Rodin, "The Gates of Hell," hell as one's own passions on earth.
Tatlin, "Monument to the Third International," about artistic ideals of the Communist Revolution.
Duchamp, "Fountain," challenges notions that "Art" requires an "Artist."
Chirico, "The Mathematicians," the confusions of science.
Dali, "The Persistence of Memory," obsessions stored in dreams.
Hopper, "Approaching a City," entry as place memory device.
Rivera, "Mexico Today, Mexico Tomorrow," social critiques.
Raushenberg, "Monogram," art to life, recharging the ordinary.
Hamilton, "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?"
Goya, "Saturn Devouring his Son," about greed, its consequences.
Durand, "Kindred Spirits," human relationships dwarfed by nature.
Turner, "Snowstorm: Hannibal Crossing the Alps," about natural fury.
Friedrich, "The Stages of Life," life as temporal, nature as timeless.
Film
Babbett's Feast. Reveals the difficulty of intervening in cultural group unlike one's own. Shows the power of the richly talented who uses senses to educate others prior to major intervention.
Fountainhead. Ayn Rand's controversial work advocating a strong point-of-view attitude for the artist/architect in engaging others. The pitfalls for a "service" profession demands review with all our design students who come to us with this notion.
Do the Right Thing. Spike Lee's look at feelings of powerlessness of talented individuals. As misery compounds, the fight for symbolic changes unfolds, empowering the cultural group as a whole.
Zelig. Woody Allen's examination of one's own value system relative to others. Zelig, incapable of contributing to society, since he has no mind of his own, attempts to overcome his chameleon-like mind, resulting in totally anti-social behavior (a good critique of Ayn Rand's Fountainhead).
Strangers in Good Company. A canadian film that captures the power of risk-taking, consensus building, and the inherent goodness of people.
Music Teacher. Deals with the obsessions needed to master an art form.