The Look of Architecture

Witold Rybczynski begins his book by stating that most architects deny that they fit into any stylistic form.

We cannont, however, separate Frank Lloyd Wright from his hat and cape, or Le Corbusier from his heavy round glasses.

Similarly, buildings present a public face that do not always betray their function.

In this essay, he takes a short tour of modern architecture and talks about what style in architecture means.

Rybczynski shows how style in clothing and architecture are related, and discusses why style became a taboo subject in the 20th-century.

With descriptions of particular buildings, he examines the work of brilliant architects including Mies van der Rohe, Robert Venturi, and Frank Gehry, illustrating his argument that contrary to modernist dogma, form does not follow function.

Rybczynski leaves the reader with a fresh way of looking at architecture.