Over the course of this century, nature has increasingly been relegated to the province of environmentalists while cities and towns have been turned over to developers and planners. Norman Crowe seeks to overcome this division into the respective realms of specialists by recognizing the independence of both the natural and the manmade through an understanding of the often hidden roots of the world we contrive for ourselves. Crowe argues that we have lost a vital balance by neglecting our traditional motives for building in the first place. He argues for a symbiotic theory of man's making and nature's activity that views the built environment as a form of nature, one that nourishes the generative power as well as other enduring qualities of nature. In this sweeping view of architecture and urbanism across cultural boundaries, Crowe evaluates the connections between the natural and manmade in our towns and cities, farms and gardens, architecture and works of civil engineering. He draws on the lessons to be learned from the buildings and cities of the past in restoring critical traditional values that have been lost to modernism which tends to see the built world almost exclusively through the abstractions of postenlightenment science. Crowe's starting point is indigenous architecture, the origins of our cities and towns where the first geometries were imposed on nature. He traces our separation from nature over time, from the long period of human history when nature served as a paradigm for creation. The first chapter considers the psychological and practical origins for the practice of what amounts to building an ""alternative"" nature. Crowe then explores the likely historical roots of this world and investigates our intrinsic quest for unity, the ancient idea that we are responsible for maintaining a harmony between ourselves, what we make, and nature. He traces the effect of our responses to the passing of time and the inevitability of change in the built world and then considers its opposite, the quest for timelessness in response to the inevitability of time passing. Crowe concludes by looking at the idea of the city as the culminating expression of all of these characteristic responses to nature that manifest themselves in what we build.
By:
Norman Crowe
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 173mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780262531467
ISBN 10: 0262531461
Series: The MIT Press
Pages: 290
Publication Date: 22 January 1997
Recommended Age: From 18
Audience:
General/trade
,
Adult education
,
College/higher education
,
ELT Advanced
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Part 1 The idea of a man-made world: search for a balanced world; expressions of an ideal relationship with nature; duality of man and nature; our shifting idea of nature; scientific objectivity and the humanistic's critique; summary and comments on method. Part 2 Geometry and the primacy of dwelling: from a life in nature to living in a setting shaped by man; architecture as a paradigm for order; three houses in nature; primacy of the house; natural sources for the geometry of architecture;; the nature of man-made things; the stamp of custom and convention; summary - dwelling and the sources of order. Part 3 Nature and the sense of place: place and the formation of culture; psychological and social importance of 'place'; 'place' as concrete versus abstracts; the Pantheon - a place as a metaphor for the cosmos; Muuratsalo - settlement and founding a place in nature; summary - nature and the sense of place. Part 4 Unity and the idea of harmony: the structure behind the myth; harmony, idealism, and the quest for beauty; structural analysis; the quest for unity; the Polis and the idea of s sustainable city; scale and the problem of unity; the Greek temple and the tree; summary - unity and the idea of harmony. Part 5 Time and the evolution of things: time and place as related qualities of existence; the evolution of things; invention and discovery; evolution and the nature of things; seeking meaning in time; imitation and an evolution for architecture; the orders of architecture;; the analogy of language; natural theories of architecture; summary - time and the evolution of things. Part 6 Timelessness and the idea of the classical: the idea of classical; western classical architecture - the rules; classical language of the Sung dynasty building standards; Sukiya architecture of Japan; the Sufi tradition; balancing the timeless and the temporal; common law and the evolution of custom; classical thought as the means rather than the end; summary - the timeless and the idea of the classical. Part 7 Nature and the city: the transitory city of the present; is the city natural? the city as a house; time, place, and the world beyond; summary - nature and the city.
Reviews for Nature and the Idea of a Man-Made World: An Investigation into the Evolutionary Roots of Form and Order in the Built Environment
Norman Crowe seeks the wonderment of a cooperation between thenatural and the man-made world, and he does so with the hand of anexcellent writer. As a professor and teacher of architecture, hehas reached out well beyond most of his colleagues to understandthe history and ideas governing the current state of architecture srelation to nature. Kent Bloomer , Yale University Norman Crowe offers a plausible set of interpretations of the nature of the world that humankind has already built, as well as useful guidance on how we might build better in the future than we are doing now. In contrast with many conventional books that deal with the architecture of the past, he teaches us to see buildings not just as facade patterns and spaces, but also as experiences, feelings, symbols, manmade landscapes, places. This is enormously important. Edward Allen, Architect
