What's Joseph Rykwert's perspective and what's his view of the city? It's not very easy to peg down. It's not that of "sociologists, traffic experts, and politicians" as he says that he's "always been struck at how little the physical fabric of the city - its touch and smell as well as its sights - occupies their attention". Maybe he's more inclined to take an economists view and see things as Jane Jacobs does. Then again maybe not. Rykwert says quite plainly that cities do not develop "naturally". The perspective is definitely not that of a speeding, disinterested motorist. Rykwert refers to the impact of cars as "catastrophic" and says "I am not, nor have I ever been a driver." Now we're getting somewhere - a supporter of New Urbanism? Not quite. He has this to say about one of those showpiece communities: "the whole business of 'community' at Celebration is about...real estate". Rykwert is equally critical of a few architects (modernists), certain building designs (government and institutional), a couple of city plans (Brasilia and New Delhi), and some approaches to urbanism (the New Town concept of post WWII Europe).

With all that's wrong it's amazing that this book didn't turn out to be a miserable reading experience. That's partly due to Rykwert's writing skill but moreso because of his very obvious love for the city. THE SEDUCTION OF PLACE and affection for city space is obvious. The depths of his thinking about the urban form is manifest and Rykwert offers a synopsis of what's wrong and also what's to love about a city. "My polemic is not against the disordered, even chaotic city but against the anonymous and alienating one." With this we finally understand what his perspective is. It's that of a person open to experiencing the personality of a city; that of someone at ground level. Our difficulty with coming up with a clear view of the city might be due to the fact that we haven't experienced the city as Rykwert has and it doesn't yet occupy the same space in our hearts and minds. He invites us to begin. "The very condition of openess is what makes our city of conflicts so attractive to its growing crowd of inhabitants. The lack of any coherent, explicit, image may therefore, in our circumstances, be a positive virtue, not a fault at all, or even a problem."

Joseph Rykwert's new book is perhaps his most radical, although he elaborates on themes that have preoccupied him for more than 4 decades. Never has he so emphatically stated his conviction that the cities we desire can become the cities we have, but only if we take hold of our capacity to effect meaningful reform. Rykwert's position is particularly encouraging and insightful at a time when most of us perceive the built environment as the result of abstract and impersonal economic and political forces seemingly beyond any individual influence. Rykwert's stance is a challenge to architect's, urban designers, planners and other citizens who cannot imagine an alternative between revolution and acquiescence other than surrender to conditions as they are. Such inertia is countered by Rykwert, as are rationalist and quantitative approaches to the city, with affirmation of the city as a fundamental setting of and for human will, dreams, and desire. It follows then, according to Rykwert, that any successful making and re-making of cities depends on a set of rational principles that are flexible enough to accomodate chance, elaboration, and improvisation. Features Rykwert believes can become the special qualities of contemporary and future cities (if they are not eradicated). Rykwert's consideration of the city investigates the full-range of attempts to make cities places of and for people; a thread he pursues from ancient cities, to the revolutions of 1848 to the Seattle demonstrations in 1999 in opposition to the World Trade Organization. It is for these reasons, and many others, that Rykwert's book is a must-read for all lovers of cities and perhaps especially for all those who don't yet love them.

This is a book more for architects than it is for classicists although it will enrich anyone who reads it. Rykwert is a scholar of the first rank, and it is the mark of a superior scholar to write in such a way as to cull the most arcane information from another field and trim, dry, boil, knead and package it for easy swallowing without sacrificing any of the wisdon-enhancing ingredients. Other books dealing with the same theme have preceded Rykwert's own book. F.W Jackson Knight's and Fustel de Coulanges' are exemplary for their intensity of imagination and obliquity of perspective. And like its predecessors, Rykwert's book takes you on a brief, but a grand tour of the ancient world. That is to say, it shows you just what was so grand about the ancient world and the ancient mind's response to the cosmos in its orientation with regard to "worlding". The book deals with the ancient practice, especially Roman, of founding a city. Rykwert shows you in plain language the profundity and density of religious and mythopoetic factors that used to go into the act of founding a city. But, this book is not about something that once was. It is about that which always IS in Architecture. The Roman poet Sallust said of myths, "these things never happened, but are always." This is what Rykwert gets at in describing the actual mechanisms and the machines that appear as gods, herms, gates, etc, in ancient Mediterranean constructions of the world. World: Mundus, in Latin. The chthonic gateway to the underworld, the big gaping vaginal hole in the middle of the site where the town is to be erected. The final chapter discusses the symbolic parallels found in other traditions.
This book is not optional reading for those who would pretend to practice architecture, or for those who want to understand the origin/destiny of the relationship between "art" and "religion", between the Apollonian and the Dionysian in Western culture. I recommend Camille Paglia's for a richer and wider and literary understanding of the implication of Rykwert's thesis as it applies to the whole cultural trajectory of the Occident's history. By the way, the sales rank of this book, and that after 25 years, no architect (practitioner, student, consumer) has bothered to write a review of this indispensible work only further fan my misgivings concerning the two thing I know about my own profession: intellectual vapidity of the license wielding practitioners and the miasmic cabalism of the academics.

The Ten Books of Architecture by Alberti, is one of the finest texts for the education of an Architect or Town Planner. Alberti's ideas are studied at almost very Architecture Program in the world. The Ten Books of Architecture describe how to design successfully, and how to design towns that are safe. Alberti expands on the work of Vitruvius. I would recommend this book for anyone who has an intrest in design. The text is very simple to understand. After reading these books, one will have a much clearer understanding of design.

I highly recommend this book for fans of Richard Meier's work. Like all of the books in this series, it gives great details of the floor plans and elevations. Because this series is based on a time frame and not a certain type of architecture or building material, it includes all of Meier's designs; both houses and buildings.

I really liked this book. Rather than being your standard coffee table oversized hardcover (which is a lot of what you find these days about architecture) this book presents a serious and fascinating discussion about architecture and the modern world. Their new approach, looking at three clients, puts the architects in a new light, offering greater depth and understanding of what it takes to build a modern monument. Anyone with a more than cursory interest in architecture would certainly enjoy and learn from this book.

we came to expect from Joseph Rykwert works of great erudition, which incessantly delve into their subject matter to uncover its deepest folds and hidden meanings...[perhaps a "deconstruction" without the fancy of that attribute], and this work is no exception to this. This is a thick investigation into the meanings of the column, and from that into the associations of body and building, into the meanings of classical architecture. For the erudite, a pleasure; for the professional, a necessary though at times difficult read. Not a coffee table book, though...amateurs beware.

Do not confuse this Monacelli Press book with the latest Rizzoli book by the same name. This one is an "artsy cofee table book" with slightly out-of-focus artsy black and white photos of a limited selection of his projects, including some of his earlier houses as well as some of his latest works. Large two page photographs are shown, together with 3 or 4 smaller ones per project, in lieu of a more comprehensive exposition of their work. If you are looking for information on their current work or design ideas check out the Rizzoli books instead.

To those very few of us who are in architectural circles, Richard Meier is a common name. I know that I quickly bought the first two volumes of his books upon entering Architecture School, and put my name on a waiting list for 3 months to get the third volume. When the book arived, I was a little disappointed at the haste in which the book was put together. It seemed to me that they were in such a rush to put out another volume of his work, that the quality of it suffered. Many of the projects shown in this book, are just completed versions of what was in the planning phases in his second book. Another disappointing feature of this book is that almost one quarter of it is dedicated to the Getty Center. I guess the reason that it seemed so spurious to me is that I had volume two AND a book on the Getty Center before purchasing this third volume, so there wasn't much new information to sink my teeth into. My recomendation is this: If you have the first two volumes- Don't be in any hurry to buy this book. It's already familiar to you, and you'll be let down.

If you don't have the first two volumes, or are new to architecture: Go and buy this book immedeately! This is a great book for you to become familiar with one of the masters of modern architecture. You'll like what you see

This 3rd in a series monograph by Rizzoli is a must-have addition to any serious architectural book library or to fans of Richard Meiers work. The numerous color photos are top rate, and together with a large number of drawings give a thorough overview of one of the top designers of today. The many photos in particular attest as to the successful completion of previously anticipated projects which have been in the pipeline, while new drawings herald new masterpieces to come.

Like the previous reviewer said, the villas depicted here seem empty...Probably cause they have no furniture!

I'll bet the authors just took a tour of Italian villas turned into museums to get their shots. Half the villas are in Italy and seem like they are ruins or 'open to the public'. They are more like palaces instead of homes. The modern villas are TOO modern. You know what I mean: box-like or angular stark structures that resemble commercial buildings rather than traditional houses. Fallingwater does have floorplans & is furnished so it was the only villa I liked.

This book was of course very nice, but not excellent. The photographic printing seemed a bit dated and it somehow didn't give a real impression of what the villas were really like...a little impersonal. Only Frank Lloyd Wright's house at the end seemed to have enough photos that you got a real feel for it. That said, it is a nice book and I'm sure very interesting for some.