Architecture

From Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) and the breathtaking dome of Florence Cathedral, to the inventive structures of Norman Foster (b.1935) and the poetics of movement in bridges by Santiago Calatrava (b.1951), Kenneth Powell describes the careers of 40 great builders whose engineering skills have been crucial to their success. Written by a distinguished team of architectural historians, the book celebrates the work – and illustrates many individual structures – by figures such as Vauban, Wren, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Gehry.

Paddington Station in London is one of Britain's most splendid and historically significant railway termini, as the home and headquarters of the Great Western Railway, and as one of the masterpieces of its chief engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. This comprehensive history of the station and related buildings and structures, first published in 2004, has been updated to include details of the recently discovered Bishop's Road Canal Bridge – probably Brunel's first cast iron bridge. Second edition.

From Salisbury to market towns such as Devizes, Wiltshire’s urban buildings express a distinctive local vernacular. Drawing on county archives and illustrated with photographs, maps and plans, this study explains the pattern of development before examining the town houses of the gentry, workers’ and artisans’ dwellings, shop fronts and pubs, detailing period styles, building materials, and external and interior features.

Dovecotes are one of the least recorded types of vernacular building, but architects including James Wyatt and Edwin Lutyens have designed them and their history reaches into antiquity. This survey of English and Welsh examples ranges from Norman times to the 20th century and from utilitarian structures to Palladian flights of fancy. The authors also describe how doves and pigeons have been domesticated, reared and used by humans. Off-mint.

This guide explores the origins, history and building materials of Oxfordshire’s parish churches. The authoritative introduction examines the ways in which the buildings have developed over the last thousand years, and the gazetteer features 116 of the finest medieval and post-medieval examples in the county. Illustrated with over 300 colour photographs and floor plans, the survey provides descriptions of significant architectural features, sculpture and stained glass, and identifies often-overlooked details unique to each site.

Thatched roofs are perhaps associated more with the county of Devon than any other part of the country, the 'combed wheat reed' style of straw thatching being the traditional method of the region. Using many archive photographs as well as images of thatchers at work, this book traces the history of thatching in Devon from the earliest times, celebrating the skills and traditions of the craft and exploring some of the most interesting thatched buildings in the county today.

Few architects have been as influential as Andrea Palladio, whose ideas are embodied in stately buildings across Europe and America. In this fusion of travelogue, architectural guide and historical biography, the acclaimed architectural commentator Witold Rybczynski journeys along the Brenta River in northern Italy to visit Palladio’s surviving villas, and discovers how a rustic stonemason became the most sophisticated architect of the Renaissance.

One of Scotland’s foremost citizens of the early 18th century, John Erskine (1675–1732), Earl of Mar was active in politics and in architecture, landscape and infrastructure planning. He made important contributions to building in Scotland, particularly in his native Alloa and, in exile in France after his support for the 1715 Rising, he continued designing and planning. This aspect of Mar’s life, rather than his controversial politics, is the focus of Margaret Stewart’s richly illustrated study.

Founded in the 1830s by the multi-talented Edmund Sharpe, the Lancaster firm of Sharpe, Paley and Austin went on to become the greatest provincial architectural practice in Victorian and Edwardian England. This book charts the firm's history for the first time, explaining how it secured commissions through a web of personal and family connections; and, with a wealth of photographs, it illustrates the urban and rural churches, country houses, schools and infirmaries built by the company.

Much of Britain's architectural heritage was fashioned not by architects but by jobbing builders, using methods passed down through the generations. Extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, plans and elevations, this lucid guide explains the historical development and regional variations of vernacular architecture. It explores the various building types – from manor houses to cottages, farms to industrial premises – construction methods and materials, and decorative details, while the appendices explain how to research the subject, make detailed records and carry out surveys. Slightly Off-mint.

Marc’Antonio Barbaro (1518–1595) was one of Venice’s most prominent statesmen, a dedicated servant of the Republic and a gifted and experienced amateur in architecture, entrusted with overseeing the construction of the fortified town of Palmanova. Through a study of Barbaro’s career, this richly illustrated volume examines the architectural debates and controversies among the nobility of 15th-century Venice and the ‘complex dialectic between theory and practice, between utopias and reality, and between design and technology’.

When the Jesuits built their Church of the Immaculate Conception in Mayfair in the 1840s, Catholic worship was still a controversial topic in England, so the modest façade on a quiet side street gave little idea of the splendour within. This handsome book charts for the first time the heritage of a pioneering church that drew such eminent converts as Evelyn Waugh and Edith Sitwell, while commissioned photographs illustrate its magnificent decoration.

Using over 100 examples ranging from the pyramids of Giza to Deconstructivist works such as Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin, Isabel Kuhl's richly illustrated volume traces the groundbreaking developments in architecture which led to the construction of the world's most famous and most influential architectural landmarks. In 20 chronologically ordered chapters, the book examines technical achievements, materials and individual projects, including lesser-known buildings as well as the classical masterpieces which have taken architecture in new directions.

Off-mint.

The Chapel Society’s second ‘Miscellany’ presents four illustrated essays: studies of chapel people in Berkshire in 1851, the year in which Nonconformist numbers and locations were recorded in the census; Unitarians and ecclesiology in Northern England; the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Manchester, built by Edgar Wood; and the ecclesiastical work of the Congregationalist architect, Thomas Lewis Banks (1842–1920).

A selection from the English Heritage archive of some 25,000 photographs taken by professional architectural photographers Bedford Lemere between the 1870s and the late 1920s, this volume focuses on the period after 1890 and offers a view of Britain at the height of its wealth and power. Accompanied by Cooper's introduction, the photographs are arranged by themes, including public buildings, commerce and industry, transport and technology, leisure and entertainment and life at home during the Great War.

After the Blitz devastated many of London's historic churches, some 250 new ones were built throughout the capital, mostly in the Modernist style. They have received little attention, and some have fallen into neglect or been demolished; but as this unique survey makes clear, many have considerable architectural merit. A general introduction is followed by a borough-by-borough gazetteer, with each entry illustrated by both an interior and exterior view. The book concludes with a list of architects and their work.

The architect AWN Pugin (1812-1852) was England's leading exponent of the Gothic revival. In this pioneering work, first published in 1843, he espouses Gothic of the early 14th century as the pinnacle of architectural excellence. New introduction by Michael Fisher.

Britain's labour movement has left a rich architectural heritage of trade union headquarters, institutes and co-operatives. Extensively illustrated with modern and period photographs, this book traces their development from the Chartists through the Arts and Crafts movement to 20th-century Modernism; it outlines recent preservation campaigns, and details surviving buildings that can be visited; and beyond the bricks and mortar, it is a history of the men and women who struggled to improve the lives of working people.

Written by an art historian, this volume traces a history that leads from Napoleon's encounter with the gigantic monuments of ancient Egypt to the building of the wonders of the industrial world: the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and Suez and Panama Canals. Grigsby shows how all four modern colossi owe their existence to French engineers and the fantasies of wealth, progress and colonial expansion they and the French financiers and politicians took as a call to destiny. With over 200 illustrations.