A Global History of Architecture

by Francis D.K. Ching, Mark Jarzombek, Vikramaditya Prakash

From ancient Chinese civilization to the postmodern world


Organized along a global timeline, A Global History of Architecture presents an innovative approach to the study of architectural history. Spanning from 3,500 B.C.E. to the present, this unique guide is written by an all-star team of architectural experts in their fields who emphasize the connections, contrasts, and influences of architectural movements throughout history. The architectural history of the world comes to life through a unified framework for interpreting and understanding architecture, supplemented by rich drawings from the renowned Frank Ching as well as brilliant photographs.

Architecture and art history enthusiasts will find A Global History of Architecture perpetually at their fingertips.

Genres: Architecture, History, Nonfiction, Art, Design, Art History, Reference

848 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2006

About the author

Frank (Francis D. K.) Ching (born 1943) is a widely recognized author of books addressing architectural and design graphics. Ching's books have been widely influential and continue to shape the visual language of all fields of design. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington.

Reviews

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is part of my Architectural Studies. It gives you a overall highlight of many buildings from antiquity (pre-3500 BCE) to modern day. Each building is given an overview but in my opinion uses too many words to describe the political and social climate at the time leading up to and of the building design and construction. Although this information is important in a larger study of each project, with the limited amount of words allotted for each building, more concentration should be about the actual project in Architecture terms. Words are also used by saying things like “it is still an impressive building”, found on page 199. Opinions in this manner don’t add to the knowledge of the person reading the text trying to extract critical information about each project. Additionally, image selection and use could be enhanced. For example there is no image of the “Temple of Heaven” building in Beijing, which is one of the most important and beautiful buildings ever designed and constructed. This should have been on page 442 but other images were used instead, which I found disappointing. This book is a high quality text, but could be much better.

[Kristine Kravdal]

Later som jeg faktisk har lest hele :)

[Zoë]

I wasn't sure about jumping around to different cultures in the same time period for every chapter, but the effect grew on me and patterns I hadn't realized started to emerge. So long as you have a basic understanding of global geography and history (for the many, many name drops), this is a solid read. The ancients had a thing for building things meant to be seen during the solstices. When did we stop doing that? We have to do that.

[Els · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but could have stood some section headers, larger font, and simpler navigation. But I absolutely adore architectural history, so it's largely forgiven!

[Mhd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally wonderful! Profusely illustrated with photos, diagrams, time lines, maps, floor plans, elevations, and more. Organization is chronological so in just a few pages you see what is going on at that time all over the earth. Really stunning. Out of necessity, it's a large, heavy book: you need to be at a table/desk to use it. Well written and very east to follow. It seems it is a college textbook…I'd love to take such a class. Great book with a zillion places & buildings totally new to me in all time periods.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for an excellent online course A Global History of Architecture We didn't read the entire book the 85% we did read was posted online, but I got a copy from the library and skimmed the rest. Lecturer for the class was Mark M. Jarzombek, one of the co-authors of this book.

[Kirill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nicely structured book, with a good portion of Asian/African/American architecture, that often goes omitted in similar publications.
However, the author is a pathetic ruzzophil, twisting history in favour of imperial propaganda. There's a chapter called 'Kievan Russia', which has never been a thing - it's called in historiography either Rus, or Kievan/Kyivan Rus. As if it's not enough, the author continues calling "the Church of the Tithe in Kiev (989–96 ce)...the first masonry structure in Russia", making drawings titled "11.98Elevation: Church of the Tithe (Desyatinaya), Kiev, russia", and so on. With such a blatant disregard for the historiography and geography of the region, I can only imagine what other mistakes and propaganda are there in other chapters on subjects I'm less familiar with.
Pathetic, really

[Rari Marks · Rating 5 out of 5]

My bucket list is overflowing after reading this book. I recommend reading with your phone next to you so you can look up pictures of the buildings and artifacts, maps of empires, dates of reigning kings...there are a few tiny black and white pictures of each building in the book that do nothing to convey how friggin magnificent some of these places are. There are also little tidbits, just a sentence about something that makes you screech to a halt, like the Assyrians depicted unicorns many times over...that's all you get about that, just one sentence. Good thing I had my phone next to me to look up said unicorns. I loved this book, it has opened up an interest in ancient history that wasn't quite there before I read it.

[AmericanFuturist · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Third Edition that I have was a really good introduction into the subject of Architecture and it helped me become more interested in it as a subject. So if you want to learn about Architecture and don't know where to start, this book might be right for you.

[Tomas1234 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful.

[Cecile · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why is there evolutionary dating in a book about building structures?

[Caesar N.W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect to learn so much about global trade and with it, the flow of knowledge, reading a book on the global history of architecture.

[dano · Rating 1 out of 5]

disgusting (actually interesting but lord.. abolish uni)

[Rosanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book. I did not finish it, I really need to own it.

[Mohammad Hadi]

the book is good

[Landon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for my History of Architecture I class.