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Title:
Begin again, fail better: Preliminary drawings in architecture and art

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"Begin again, fail better: preliminary drawings in architecture" engages with one of the principal activities of the architect in the process of design: drawing by hand, and more specifically, the act of beginning those drawings. Architects try, fail, try again, fail better until they start to move in the direction that ultimately becomes a building . . . or not. This book brings together some 180 preliminary architecture drawings. More than fifty contemporary Swiss architecture firms each contributed two pieces that reveal something of their individual approach and understanding of architecture. This selection is enhanced by historical works from four significant British and Swiss archival collections dating back to the sixteenth century and up to the twentieth. The illustrations are complemented by essays providing a critical and historical framework, as well as a conversation engaging with the conditions and importance of failure within the design process. Brief interludes by international architects, archivists, and teachers, introducing a range of perspectives, round out this beautiful volume.

Title:
Dessiner la Grèce : L'oeil et la main de Carl Haller von Hallerstein

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Architecte et dessinateur, voyageur infatigable, savant précis et scrupuleux, Carl Haller von Hallerstein (1774-1817) occupe une place centrale parmi les précurseurs de l’archéologie classique, bien que sa disparition prématurée l’ait privé d’une plus large renommé, notamment en France. S’appuyant sur l’exploration du fonds d’archives conservé à la bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg, cet ouvrage croise les perspectives d’historiens de l’art, d’historiens du livre et d’archéologues et permet ainsi de mieux appréhender le regard porté par Haller von Hallerstein, non seulement sur les vestiges archéologiques de la Grèce ancienne, mais également sur les paysages et les populations qrecques, albanaises et turques qui, au début du XIXe siècle, peuplent la Grèce à la veille de son indépendance.

Title:
Infinite perspectives : two thousand years of three-dimensional mapmaking

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$120.00
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Whether from military necessity or unbridled curiosity, mapmakers since early antiquity have attempted to represent the configuration of the land about them. The Greeks paid homage to the landscape and struck its image on their coins. Medieval scholars viewed the highest elevations as a boundary between the physical and the spiritual; the images they created of their sacred shrines and historic sites were drawn atop simple caricatures of mountains. Leonardo da Vinci's maps of Tuscany and other more realistic representations of landforms appeared during the Renaissance, thanks to a wealth of scientific study and new artistic methods. In the modern era, new techniques were invented as attempts to portray the three-dimensional world on a flat surface became more sophisticated. Hachuring, a system that involves shading with fine parallel or crossed lines, was developed with the use of copper plates; contour lines slowly replaced this technique in the nineteenth century. Lithography allowed for the introduction of color to the printing process, and multi-color tints were used to impart a sense of elevation. Aerial and satellite photography and the dawn of the digital era have yielded maps of unprecedented realism; today's computer technology allows planetary surfaces to be portrayed in three dimensions with a precision unimaginable to previous generations of mapmakers. "Infinite Perspectives" traces the artistic and scientific evolution of topographic representation from its origins to the present. Over 80 colour plates of some of the most significant maps ever made detail important advances in the portrayal of three dimensions in map form. The final section of the book contains 20 plates presenting a revolutionary cartographic technique that allows viewers wearing ordinary 3D glasses to view planetary surfaces without distortion. This invention, developed by the authors with Dr. Russell Ambroziak and named Infinite Perspective Projection, is currently in use by NASA and the Department of Defense. Included are maps of Mars, the Grand Canyon, and Mount McKinley, as well as one large fold-out map, suitable for framing; two pairs of the necessary 3D viewing glasses are also provided.

Title:
Limes atlas

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This atlas shows the significance today of the Northern border zone of the Roman Empire in the Netherlands. Illustrated with maps and photographs throughout. With summaries in English and German.

Title:
Drawing distinctions : the varieties of graphic expression

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$37.50
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Patrick Maynard surveys the rich and varied practices of drawing, from the earliest markings on cave walls to the complex technical schematics that make the modern world possible, from cartoons and the first efforts of preschoolers to the works of skilled draftspeople and the greatest artists, East and West. Despite, or perhaps because of, its ubiquity, drawing as such has provoked remarkably little philosophical reflection. Nonphilosophical writing on the topic tends to be divided between specialties such as art history and mechanics. In this book, Maynard reveals the interconnections and developments that unite this fundamental autonomous human activity in all its diversity. Informed by close discussion of work in art history, art criticism, cognitive and developmental psychology, and aesthetics, Drawing Distinctions presents a theoretically sophisticated yet approachable argument that will improve comprehension and appreciation of drawing in its many forms, uses, and meanings.

Title:
Chicago in maps, 1612 to 2002

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$70.00
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"Chicago in maps" is an illustrated cartographic history of Chicago, known for centuries as the gateway city to the West. The documents reproduced here offer an unprecedented avenue to the city's past - a fascinating collective portrait of the evolution of one of America's great towns. Among the seventy-four maps featured, many are seminal exemplars of this timeless art form: the "Kinzie Map," which accompanied the Narrative of the Massacre of 1812; the Rand McNally "View of the World's Columbian Exposition" of 1893; Daniel Burnham's influential "Chicago Plan" of 1909, which epitomized the ambitions of the City Beautiful Movement; W. T. Stead's "Map of Sin"; and Bruce-Roberts' 1931 "Gangland Map" - a tongue-in-cheek "exposé" of a city populated by such powerful underworld figures as Al Capone, "Baby Face" Nelson, "Machine Gun" Kelly, and others, indicating various gang territories and warehouses.

Title:
Nouvelle méthode pour assister l'invention dans le dessin de compositions originales de paysages

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$17.95
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Édition bilingue français-anglais. Bilingual edition in French and English.

Title:
Recueils d'Italie : les modèles italiens dans les livres d'architecture français

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Issu d'une thèse soutenue sous la direction de Françoise Choay, Recueils d'Italie se rattache à la tendance contemporaine qui porte un nouveau regard sur les livres d'architecture, désormais considérés comme des œuvres, donc comme des objets d'étude à part entière. Il en aborde tous les aspects, du contenu à la forme et aux méthodes de production, évoquant le choix des modèles présentés comme la construction graphique des figures, le rendu et la mise en page comme le découpage en livraisons et la vente par souscription.

Title:
Les paysages de la raison

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$51.50
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Vers la fin du XVIIIe siècle, une nouvelle image de Rome apparaît dans la peinture. L'heure n'est plus aux visions sépulcrales, à la poétique des ruines, aux vedute livrées à l'Europe par Piranèse. Rome est désormais solaire, inhabitée, géométrique. Ce sont surtout les artistes étrangers qui imposent ce changement des regards : Français d'abord, dans le sillage de David, puis Hollandais, Allemands, Anglais, Suisses, Danois. L'absence des Italiens s'explique : plus dépendants que les autres par rapport aux lois du marché, ils se risquent moins à des solutions radicales, qui remettraient en cause l'idée encore bien enracinée de la "bonne peinture". Aux origines de la mutation: la redécouverte du dorique, dont les formes élémentaires et primaires sont rapidement prises comme modèles pour les arts figuratifs. Peintres et architectes, c'est l'autre innovation, travaillent côte à côte, étudient les mêmes monuments, fréquentent les mêmes lieux. L'histoire qui se dessine est alors celle d'une conceptualisation et d'une abstraction progressives des formes et des espaces, avec des solutions expressives qui apparaissent aujourd'hui d'une extraordinaire modernité. C'est un XVIIIe siècle peu connu, qui rejoint l'histoire européenne de la peinture de paysage, le long d'une ligne qui conduit d'Henri de Valenciennes à Jean-Baptiste Corot.

Title:
Les plans de Paris : histoire d'une capitale

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$99.95
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En cinquante planches, cet ouvrage donne à voir l'image de Paris depuis la fin du Moyen Age et les traces anciennes conservées dans la cité moderne. Les plans, commentés, sont précédés d'un exposé sur ce qu'ils apportent à la compréhension de la ville. Que représentent-ils au-delà des rues, des parcelles, des maisons, des monuments Pourquoi a-t-on représenté Paris ? Pour préparer des projets d'aménagement par un savant arpentage ou pour magnifier les réalisations des princes ? Comment l'a-t-on représenté ? Dans les vues cavalières qui révèlent sa complexité, dans les plans géométriques qui auscultent la forme urbaine ? L'analyse de cette cartographie montre des familles, des générations, une évolution non linéaire : le plan a valeur d'image qui excite le désir de découverte du voyageur et où l'habitant reconnaît sa ville ; il répond également à une recherche de l'exactitude satisfaisant l'esprit technique et tendant à l'abstraction. La succession de ces plans historiques constitue finalement la mémoire de la ville, à travers ses métamorphoses.