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Botanical Architecture

Plants, Buildings and Us

Paul Dobraszczyk

$49.99

Hardback

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English
Reaktion Books
01 January 2025
When we look at trees, we see a form of natural architecture, and yet we have seemingly always exploited trees to make new buildings of our own. Whereas a tree creates its own structure, humans generally destroy other things to build, with increasingly disastrous consequences. In Botanical Architecture, Paul Dobraszczyk looks closely at how elements of plants-seeds, roots, trunks, branches, leaves, flowers, and canopies - compare with and constitute human-made buildings. Given the omnipresence of plant life in and around our structures, Dobraszczyk argues that we ought to build as much for plants as for ourselves, understanding that our lives are always totally dependent on theirs. Botanical Architecture offers a provocative and original take on the relationship between ecology and architecture.
By:  
Imprint:   Reaktion Books
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 156mm, 
ISBN:   9781789149272
ISBN 10:   1789149274
Pages:   280
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Further / Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Introduction: Vegetal Architecture 1 Seeds 2 Roots 3 Trunks 4 Branches 5 Leaves 6 Flowers 7 Canopies References Further Reading Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index

Paul Dobraszczyk is an architectural writer and a lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London.

Reviews for Botanical Architecture: Plants, Buildings and Us

An impressive, compendious book with a great deal to offer the architecture lover and the plant lover alike, including much that will surprise. * Literary Review * Plants are architects! This is what, with admirable lucidity, Paul Dobraszczyk claims in his new book. Focusing by turns on seeds, roots, trunks, branches, leaves, flowers, canopies, and vegetal communities that include all living beings, Botanical Architecture is a tour d'imagination of thinking with plants. * Michael Marder, author of Time is a Plant and (with Edward S. Casey) Plants in Place * In this fascinating and wide-ranging book Paul Dobraszczyk takes us on a journey through the intersecting realms of botany and architecture. Botanical architecture is set to be a pivotal contribution to what we might term the 'vegetal turn' that is now spreading across multiple disciplinary fields ranging from art history to materials science. * Matthew Gandy, Professor of Geography, University of Cambridge * With Botanical Architecture, Paul Dobraszczyk shows that many architects have been learning not from Las Vegas but from vegetation—and that the lessons of plantlife are endless. From ancient forest homes to medieval floral ornament, from modern green roofs to oxygen gardens in space, Dobraszczyk’s book is a deep-rooted and exciting compendium. * Geoff Manaugh, New York Times-bestselling author of A Burglar’s Guide to the City and BLDGBLOG *


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