3rd Edition
Twenty-Five+ Buildings Every Architect Should Understand Revised and Expanded Edition
The underlying theme of Twenty-Five+ Buildings Every Architect Should Understand is the relationship of architecture to the human being, how it frames our lives and orchestrates our experience; how it can help us make sense of the world and contribute to our sense of identity and place. Exploring these dimensions through a wide range of case studies that illustrate the rich diversity of twentieth- and twenty-first-century architecture, this book is essential reading for every architect. With the addition of numerous shorter analyses, this new edition covers an even greater range of architectural ideas, providing students and architects with further inspiration for exploration in their own design work.
Architects live by ideas. But where do they come from? And how do they shape buildings? There is no one right way to do architecture. This book illustrates many. Its aim is to explore the rich diversity of architectural creativity by analysing a wide range of examples to extract the ideas behind them.
Twenty-Five+ Buildings Every Architect Should Understand is a companion to Simon Unwin’s Analysing Architecture: the Universal Language of Place-
Making (most recent edition, 2021), and part of the trilogy which also includes his Exercises in Architecture: Learning to Think as an Architect (second edition, 2022). Together the three books offer an introduction to the workings of architecture providing for the three aspects of learning: theory, examples and practice. Twenty-Five+ Buildings focusses on analysing examples using the methodology offered by Analysing Architecture, which operates primarily through the medium of drawing.
An underlying theme of Twenty-Five+ Buildings Every Architect Should Understand is the relationship of architecture to the human being, how it frames our lives and orchestrates our experiences; how it can help us give form to the world and contributes to our senses of identity and place. Exploring these dimensions through case studies that illustrate the rich diversity of twentieth- and twenty-first-century architecture, this book is essential reading, and hopefully an inspiration, for every architect.
In this new edition supplementary analysis and discussion has been added to each of the twenty-five case studies, drawing attention to their influences from and on other architects. A number of extra shorter analyses have been included too, following the practice of presenting extra small dishes interspersed among main courses in high-end restaurants. These additional short analyses account for the + sign after ‘Twenty-Five’ in the title of this edition, and double the number of buildings analysed to around fifty.
Casa de Chá da Boa Nova (Siza) Mongyo-Te (Kansetsu Hashimoto) CASA DEL OJO DE AGUA (Dewes and Puente) NEUENDORF HOUSE (Pawson and Silvestrin) BARCELONA PAVILION (Mies) TRUSS WALL HOUSE (Ushida Findlay) ENDLESS HOUSE (Kiesler) FARNSWORTH HOUSE (Mies) Glass House (Johnson) Robie House 1 (Wright) LA CONGIUNTA (Märkli) CABANON (Le Corbusier) Hōjōki (Kami no Chomei) ESHERICK HOUSE (Kahn) inc. Vanna Venturi House (Venturi) House VI (Eisenman) The Box (Moss) Temple of the Four Winds (Vanbrugh) MAISON À BORDEAUX (Koolhaas) DANTEUM (Terragni) Louisiana Art Museum (Bo and Wohlert) FALLINGWATER (Wright) VILLA SAVOYE (Le Corbusier) House of the Silver Wedding, Pompeii KEMPSEY GUEST STUDIO (Murcutt) Australian aborigine place-making Place-making on the beach SEA RANCH (MLTW) Place-making in the home VILLA E.1027 (Gray) inc. Tempe à Pailla (Gray) Apollo Pavilion (Pasmore) SANKT PETRI KYRKA (Lewerentz) Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut (Le Corbusier) Royal Villa, Knossos VILLA BUSK (Fehn) VILLA MAIREA (Aalto) Fathy House (Fathy) THERMAL BATHS (Zumthor) Changeability RAMESH HOUSE (R.S. Liza) Mud House, Kerala BARDI HOUSE (Bardi) Robie House 2 (Wright) Fun Palace (Price) VITRA FIRE STATION (Zaha Hadid) MOHRMANN HOUSE (Scharoun) Moll House (Scharoun) Schminke House (Scharoun) BIOSCLEAVE HOUSE (Gins and Arakawa) Turn End (Aldington)
Biography
Simon Unwin is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of Dundee, Scotland. He has lived in Great Britain and Australia, and taught or lectured on his work in China, Israel, India, Sweden, Turkey and the United States. Analysing Architecture’s international relevance is indicated by its translation into various languages and its adoption for architecture courses around the world. Now retired, Simon Unwin continues to teach at The Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff, UK.
Endorsements for Twenty-Five Buildings… (2nd edition)
‘Simon Unwin’s new case studies stretch his original analytical agenda beyond its more conventional
architectural history and theory parameters: it broadens the topic to open up themes and concerns very
immediate to current architectural debate. A must-have for all teachers of architecture and their students.’
Claude Saint-Arroman, Goldsmiths University (Research), School of Architecture, University of East London, UK
‘Twenty-Five Buildings Every Architect Should Understand illuminates a different perspective on understanding and decoding the theories and philosophies of architects through their works across the globe, signifying the regional context in the design process. This book is an exemplary contribution from Simon Unwin to the academic and practical interest of architecture.’
T.L. Shaji, Professor, Department of Architecture, College of Engineering, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
‘Unwin’s writings and drawings harmonize so well, and treat their manifold subject with such surgical precision and care, that they enable the reader who has not visited (in most cases never will visit) these exemplary projects, to feel as though we have entered into them, and felt with our own bodies their widely diverse and often intimate choreographies.’
Ted Landrum, Archi-Poet, University of Manitoba, Canada
‘In Twenty-Five Buildings Every Architect Should Understand, which expands on the first edition Twenty
Buildings, Simon Unwin continues a ‘go slow’ approach to architectural analysis. Eschewing flashy photographs, Unwin uses the classic architectural tools of exquisitely drawn two-dimensional plans, sections, and elevations to analyze systematically each of the twenty-five buildings. A valuable work not only for students of architecture, but for anyone wanting to understand the process of creating spaces for
human habitation and enjoyment.’
Marie-Alice L’Heureux, Architect, Associate Professor, University of Kansas, USA
