For an Architecture of Reality,   ISBN:9780930829056

Customer Rating: 

The book itself was ok. I actually had it before but needed it again for another class that I didnt realize I needed it for. Unfortunately the item got shipped late and by the time it got to me I had to have had it read already, so I had to buy another one. The seller informed me of the late shipping, and I understand, but it still was no use to me.

Customer Rating: 

Unlike poetics of bordom this one is short and sweet. Simple concept told with pictures and very little narrative. I read it on a train ride. Thanks.

Customer Rating: 

Even though this book was written a while ago (by fashions standard) it is completely relevant today. Benedikt nails down what I've been looking for and inarticulately talking about for a while: the "realness" of buildings. I'm tired of flash and fashion and this essay is a call to arms for architects to re-engage fundamental concepts about how our designs relate to space and time. A must read, preferably in masters years...

Customer Rating: 

Mr. Benedikt writes with good intentions but a pretentious flare that I feel undermines the very statement he is making with this book. If one is to get from the beginning of an idea to the end of that idea with efficiency and clarity, one should probably do so without excessive quotes, brackets and interstitials like "I think." This call to arms is reduced to an academic brain tease, muddles its point, and probably wastes a lot of black ink. How "real" is that? Covering one side of each bleached-white page with black ink? Excellent points are made, but there is much too much of Mr. Benedikt between each.

Customer Rating: 

I'm in the middle of an M.ARCH degree right now and this book has been the most influential thing I've read so far. It reminds me why I'm in school and what I'm supposed to be learning how to do. You can make sexy images and wonderful compositions that pretend to be sections and plans, or, you can think about the actual presence of the building. It's the difference between Hadid's work - which is incredibly beautiful on paper and in her paintings and yet often disorienting in real life - and Kahn's work which has fairly boring plans and sections (to me), but is powerful beyond words in actuality.