Architecture

These eloquent essays provide a valuable history of the relationship between man and architecture in terms accessible to the lay reader yet challenging for specialists. Noted architectural critic and theorist Norberg-Schulz (The Concept of Dwelling et al.) points to a modern crisis of man's alienation from his surroundings, advocating a ``phenomenology of our everyday environment.'' The author practices this synthesis of the arts that he champions and shows himself to be well-versed in philosophy, history, psychology, film, poetry and other approaches to analyzing culture. He interprets buildings as varied as the Italian Renaissance churches of Brunelleschi and the functionalist forms of Le Corbusier and Breuer; he discusses the Central European Baroque work of Borromini, Guarini and Vittone, the seminal modernism of Mies van der Rohe and postmodernism as represented by Kahn, Utzon, Portoghesi, Bofill and Scarpa. A final chapter, ``On the Way to Figurative Architecture,'' looks to the future and advances an understanding of the language of architecture. The abundant and attractively reproduced illustrations are often eye-catching and an instructive supplement to the text. (July)