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Design on the Edge: The Making of a High-Performance Building (MIT Press)

[DOC] Design on the Edge: The Making of a High-Performance Building (MIT Press) by David W. Orr at Arts-Photography

Description

The eighteenth-century Venetian painter Giambattista Tiepolo spent his life executing commissions in churches; palaces; and villas; often covering vast ceilings like those at the Wuuml;rzburg Residenz in Germany and the Royal Palace in Madrid with frescoes that are among the glories of Western art. The life of an epoch swirled around himmdash;but though his contemporaries appreciated and admired him; they failed to understand him.Few have even attempted to tackle Tiepolorsquo;s series of thirty-three bizarre and haunting etchings; the Capricci and the Scherzi; but Roberto Calasso rises to the challenge; interpreting them as chapters in a dark narrative that contains the secret of Tiepolorsquo;s art. Blooming ephebes; female Satyrs; Oriental sages; owls; snakes: we will find them all; as well as Punchinello and Death; within the pages of this book; along with Venus; Time; Moses; numerous angels; Cleopatra; and Beatrice of Burgundymdash;a motley company always on the go.Calasso makes clear that Tiepolo was more than a dazzling intermezzo in the history of painting. Rather; he represented a particular way of meeting the challenge of form: endowed with a fluid; seemingly effortless style; Tiepolo was the last incarnation of that peculiar Italian virtue sprezzatura; the art of not seeming artful.From the Hardcover edition.


#2827418 in eBooks 2008-02-15 2008-02-15File Name: B002RDDNN4


Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Another Excellent Book by David OrrBy Erin SilvaJust about anything David Orr writes or on which he collaborates. is excellent. This book can point architects in a responsible direction if they will let go of their egos and understand the ecological implications of their work. I also recommend two of his other excellent books. THE NATURE OF DESIGN. and HOPE IS AN IMPERATIVE. The Essential David Orr.5 of 15 people found the following review helpful. A Babbled of Green FieldsBy Kevin KillianWho could dispute David Orrs central contention that we need to continue making buildings that can sustain themselves. so called "green architecture." and that theres no better place to start than at home. His is an impassioned voice that occasionally reaches the oratorical heights of a Thoreau or a Lewis Mumford. and his account of the events leading to the opening of Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin (Ohio) is worth reading from the viewpoint of agitprop alone: it is the green equivalent of THE CRADLE WILL ROCK.Alas. it lacks music altogether. and some of its purpler passages should have gotten the red pencil. And while they had the pencil out. they might also have marked up some of the endless and dull passages about persuading this one. selling the idea to that one. many Ohio and government worthies who seem to have stepped out of an early Sinclair Lewis novel. In most cases Orr doesnt mind giving himself the heroic role. but hes the man and we might as well acknowledge it. Hes not only the hero. hes the Jeremiah of his own legend. His writing style is accessible: not for Orr the theoretical flourishes of his kinsmen. In fact he harbors a certain contempt for the jargonheads. even ones who share his preoccupation with the green. He has a telling anecdote in which a San Francisco cosmopolitan. invited to give a speech. turns place into an abstraction and bewilders a room full of hardworking Ozark peasant women who give her a grim glare of blankness. These were women who lived. as opposed to the San Francisco woman who could only speak. He quotes Lao Tzu with a certain wry approval: "One who knows does not say and one who says does not know."In that case he knows and says everything that needs to be said. With the Lewis Center slated to open shortly. we will see the first colleege built building capable to sustaining itself since the original Oneida Foundation in upstate New York during the Transcendental years commemorated by Hawthorne in his BLITHEDALE ROMANCE. Yes. the cost of making such a building is higher than your ordinary strip mall. but in the long run its the strip mall thats going to cost us more. and as Orr points out. costs decline geometrically as more and more buildings go green and the technology is shared by many. Plus he prevailed upon numerous foundations who were swayed by his appeal and his honesty. His book ends up paraphrasing Wendell Berry to the effect that "to live. we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creeation. When we do this knowingly. lovingly. skillfully. reverently. it is a sacrament." I wouldnt put it that way myself. but at the heart of the matter. Orrs on the side of the Lord.

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