Architecture defined.... ISMS ISMS Information Security Management System ISMS Integrated Safety Management System ISMS Illinois State Medical Society ISMS In-flight Safety Monitoring System ISMS Indian Society for Medical Statistics ISMS Integrated Environmental, Safety, and Health Management System , UNDERSTANDING ARCHITECTURE By Jeremy Melvin, London: Herbert Press. 2005. [pounds sterling]9.99 This is the best value short guide to architecture this reviewer can recall. In 160 pages, packed with excellent illustrations, the entire history of architecture is addressed in a mere six parts, including a reference section. Two devices are employed to make such an exercise possible. The first is the definition of almost every architectural style as an '-ism' (Baroque is left as it is, thank goodness, and minimalism minimalism, schools of contemporary art and music, with their origins in the 1960s, that have emphasized simplicity and objectivity. Minimalism in the Visual Arts is absent--a nice joke). So the section on Modernism comprises expressionism expressionism, term used to describe works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision. The expressionist transforms nature rather than imitates it. , usonianism, constructivism constructivism, Russian art movement founded c.1913 by Vladimir Tatlin, related to the movement known as suprematism. After 1916 the brothers Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner gave new impetus to Tatlin's art of purely abstract (although politically intended) , purism pur·ism n. 1. Strict observance of or insistence on traditional correctness, especially of language: "By purism is to be understood a needless and irritating insistence on purity or correctness of speech" , rationalism, skyscraperism(!), totalitarianism, corporatism corporatism Theory and practice of organizing the whole of society into corporate entities subordinate to the state. According to the theory, employers and employees would be organized into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political and brutalism. The second device is a graphic key, at first sight over-complicated but in fact easy to use, and quite good fun. The key begins with what the author, Jeremy Melvin, describes as 'the five types of -ism': Broad Cultural Trend, Artist-Defined Movement, Retrospectively Applied Label, Representation of an Ideology, and Regional or National Trend. The other graphic icons include key architects, key words, other relevant -isms, and a 'don't see' icon which warns you off trying to connect the inappropriate. Key and not quite so key buildings are listed on each double-page spread. Any student would benefit from having this on their shelf, and it would do quite good service as a bluffer's guide. The real fun, however, is in spotting the author's prejudices, veiled in the references to other buildings, or what not to see/connect. The Bilbao Guggenheim appears under Deconstructivism but this apparently shouldn't be connected to Post-Modernism. On the other hand the pages on Post-Modernism don't issue a health warning about looking at Deconstructivism. These are quibbles and would probably prompt a spirited dinner discussion with an author who has obviously thought carefully about the taxonomy of architectural history before producing a guide of extraordinary concision con·ci·sion n. 1. The state or quality of being concise: "a role made . . . dramatically accessible by the concision of the form" George Steiner. 2. . |
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