Architecture: The Critics’ Choice
edited by Dan Cruickshank
Aurum Press
£25
352 pages
This lavishly illustrated book has been devised to provide "a refreshingly original approach to the history of architecture". It does so by dividing 2000 years of Western architecture into 10 eras, allotting each era to a pundit – including Gavin Stamp, Christian Norberg-Schulz and Gillian Darley – and asking them to present their choices of 15 masterpieces each. This is a neat formula that results in 150 all-time chart-toppers being allocated a double-page spread each, combining a large glossy photograph and a page of text. Unfortunately, the book is not as accessible as it may first appear, as the single photograph of each building is unable to support its lengthy written description.
edited by Dan Cruickshank
Aurum Press
£25
352 pages
This lavishly illustrated book has been devised to provide "a refreshingly original approach to the history of architecture". It does so by dividing 2000 years of Western architecture into 10 eras, allotting each era to a pundit – including Gavin Stamp, Christian Norberg-Schulz and Gillian Darley – and asking them to present their choices of 15 masterpieces each. This is a neat formula that results in 150 all-time chart-toppers being allocated a double-page spread each, combining a large glossy photograph and a page of text. Unfortunately, the book is not as accessible as it may first appear, as the single photograph of each building is unable to support its lengthy written description.
