The Look of Architecture by Witold Rybczynski

by Witold Rybczynski

What is style in architecture? "Style is like a feather in a woman's hat, nothing more," said Le Corbusier, expressing most modern architects' low regard for the subject. But Witold Rybczynski disagrees, and in The Look of Architecture , he makes a compelling case for the importance of style to the mother of the arts.
This is a book brimming with sharp observations--that form does not follow function; that the best architecture is not timeless but precisely of its time; that details do not merely complement the architecture--details are the architecture. But the heart of the book illuminates the connection between architecture, interior decoration, and fashion. Style is the language of architecture, Rybczynski writes, and fashion represents the wide--and swirling--cultural currents that shape and direct that language. The two, style and fashion, are intimately linked--indeed, architecture cannot escape fashion. To set these ideas in sharp relief, he shows us how style and fashion have been expressed in the work of major architects--including Frank Gehry, Mies van der Rohe, Charles McKim, Allan Greenberg, Robert Venturi, Enrique Norten, and many others. He helps us see their works anew and ultimately to look afresh at our surroundings.
Style is one of the enduring--and endearing--aspects of architecture, Rybczynski concludes. Furthermore, an architecture that recognizes the importance of style would not be as introspective and self-referential as are so many contemporary buildings. It would be part of the world--not architecture for architects, but for the rest of us.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Art, Design

Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Witold Rybczynski was born in Edinburgh, of Polish parentage, raised in London, and attended Jesuit schools in England and Canada. He studied architecture at McGill University in Montreal, where he also taught for twenty years. He is currently the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also co-edits the Wharton Real Estate Review. Rybczynski has designed and built houses as a registered architect, as well as doing practical experiments in low-cost housing, which took him to Mexico, Nigeria, India, the Philippines, and China.

(From www.witoldrybczynski.com)

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly, highly recommended.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A three-part essay on the relationship of style to architecture (namely, that it’s rather important). I’d summarize the 3 sections as follows:

1. Like clothes, our buildings communicate how we understand ourselves. If architecture doesn’t accede to how people choose to be in the world, it’s the buildings, not the people, that wind up looking bad.
2. Architectural fashions change, responding to their cultural and historical milieux. Great architecture isn’t timeless, but specifically of its time.
3. The key to style isn’t following rules perfectly, it’s knowing when and how to break the rules to make a building work. Paying attention to the details and harmonizing them to the whole is important.

I think these are all good points, but I didn’t find this book totally satisfying. It was long on examples, short on illustrations – it required a lot of breaks to look up the buildings he brings up. And it was too short to really feel like it was making critical headway into the broad and important topic of style. In the end, I think 120 pages was the wrong length – it would’ve been better as a 60-page manifesto or a 240-page deep dive. Not bad, just could’ve been a bit better.

[mahatmanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

buku kecil bersampur keras ini imut.
'buatlah arsitektur yang bagus'. itu pesannya.
karena, bila karya kita itu bagus, maka karya itu mau dijadiian apa pun juga bisa. maksudnya, beberapa karya arsitektur yang lestari sampai kini itu dihargai karena bagus. mungkin fungsi atau program yang dimasukkan ke dalamnya berganti-ganti, tapi itu sih tergantung pemakainya, yang penting bahwa karya itu disayang banyak orang sehingga dirawat dan dipergunakan terus sepanjang jaman, memerlihatkan mutunya yang bagus tadi.
jadi,
itulah pentingnya 'style'.
---
Oscar Wilde once remarked, "In matters of importance, style is everything."

Nietzsche believed that architecture reflected his pride, man's triumph over gravity, and his will to power.

Gabrielle Chanel, who knew something about women's hats, saw things differently. "Fashion passes," she said, "style remains."

buildings, like stamps, have different styles
---

[DoctorM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely essay on the role of style and aesthetics in architecture over the last century. Rybczynski looks at the semiotics of architectural style and the changing role of "beauty" in design and construction. While I wish the book itself had been larger and had had colour illustrations, it's a delightful little meditation. Worth reading--- very much so, in a world where sheer (post-Loos, post-Corbusier) aesthetics are still suspect in architecture.

[James Taunton · Rating 3 out of 5]

“An architecture that recognizes style - and fashion - would not be an architecture that is introspective and self-referential... It would be part of the world - not architecture for architects, but architecture for the rest of us.”

I throughly enjoyed this little book, but not in the way I expected. I found the work brief considering the gravity of its topic. Rybczynski rends to be anecdotal in his investigations. While he makes profound insights, much of the analysis becomes implicit as it is embedded in the precedents and architectural talents he chooses to focus in on. The book it very well written. This is not a criticism of his quality, but of the style in which he writes. For me, it’s a question of personal taste, as I prefer more philosophical, detailed analysis with examples as seasoning. This book was the reverse for me. A fun read, but one I doubt I’ll return to.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful bedtime reading! Succinct and conversational, it’s a fine gateway to exploring architecture. Leaves something to be desired in terms of its endeavors as lecture-turned-essay. Have yet to put my finger on it, but it may be related to the inability to pinpoint style as a box architects strive to free themselves from; or perhaps the structure of the essay itself, into three seemingly asymmetrical parts.

[Evelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an attempt to distill the attributes of architecture. It loses points because it is in need of a good proofreader And grammarian since it contains numerous typographical and other errors. It also is preachy at the end when the work of various architects is discussed in the Coda.

This book rates 2.5 stars.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable way to learn this material however (1) I am missing much of the required background knowledge and (2) I would rather hold a book three times as thick to see illustrations of all ideas the author references.

[Mike Barat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't take it any more after reading 62 pages. I will admit this book was way out of my comfort zone. It seems because Mr. Rybczynski is a professor and he simply can't write or explain anything in a way the average person in society can understand it seems to me. For example early on in the book he was explaining how pictures and furniture can have an effect on a room, and uses examples of furniture and pictures that very few people in society can afford. There was to many times in the book where the writer is talking about a building with no pictures of examples of what he was writing about. Someone else may get something out book, I sure didn't get anything out of this book.

[Angtburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lecture expanded to book form about what influences architecture and vice-versa. Found new dream home - Charles Moore's weekend house in Berkeley, CA.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important and interesting topic, but I don't think WR nailed this one. Not as convincing as many of his other books, the topic deserves to be much more deeply prodded.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Look of Architecture demonstrates that architecture is made great in large part because of its stylistic link to its time period. It is the people who use and repurpose a building who give a building power. The building, therefore, should reflect the current fashion of our lifestyle and preferences as our clothing does ("Style is the dress of thought"). Style is expressed in architecture in the large outer forms, the myriad details of the design (such as all the options in material and design of the balluster of a handrail) as well as by the relationship between the people who complete the decor of a setting they occupy.

[Two Readers in Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sample passage (p. 119): "This is the way we live today, Gehry seems to be saying, why not enjoy it?"


Reading this book is like attending an illustrated lecture series on architectural style. Which is not surprising, as the book’s genesis was a series of lectures Dr. Rybczynski gave under the auspices of Oxford University Press and the New York Public Library.

Dr. Rybczynski proves to be an erudite, far ranging, and yet – at only 119 4"x6" pages – succinct guide to the somewhat controversial concept of style in architecture. My only complaint for the book is that some of the photographs in my edition are a bit small to fully illustrate his points.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sir Henry Wotton said, "The end is to build well. Well building hath three conditions: commoditie, firmness and delight."

Commodity- to shelter human activity
firmness- to durably challenge gravity and the elements
delight- to be an object of beauty

Building should last and feel as though they will.
A banal church is a greater failure than a banal factory. The end must direct the operation.

Rybczynski packs this book with a lot of information in a delightful way, making it an easy and enjoyable book.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The sense of being in a special place that is a three-dimensional expression of the architect’s imagination is one of the distinctive pleasures of architecture.”

Wonderful discussions of form, of function, of details. Though, I wish this book could have had more pictures, more visual details to compliment the author’s superb style.

[t-rex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slim text, expanded from a series of lectures. Quite intellectual and illuminating...without being too difficult for those not in the field. An occasional photographic illustration helps bring home the salient points about architectural styles and their use.

[Ammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice short look at the role of style in architecture. I learned some neat things and looked at some interesting buildings and it was accessible even though I don't know much about architecture, but it didn't move me. Interesting and well-written, but not my favorite Rybczynski.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

quick read of why style matters when it comes to architecture

[claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

was told to read this in school : couldn't understand any of it at the time.
re-reading it now after i know anything I'm thinking this is a pretty damn good book!

[Iben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather simplistic but a decent short read.

[Eric De Feo · Rating 4 out of 5]

great, quick read on architecture. penn prof!

[J. M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at modern architecture for the non-specialist.

[John Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always a pleasure to read Rybczynski. In a short book he makes his case well, better than lots of others at four times the length and in far better prose.

[Fahad Albader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piece of art, the relation between fashion and architecture, and how the architect's appreciate the style. Full of criticism and interpretation of the 19th and 20th architecture.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet book adapted from a series of lectures. Well worth reading if you have any interest in architecture. Wish it had more pictures, but that's what the Internet is for. :)