Houses: Structures, Methods, and Ways of Living - Hardcover

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

Grade 4-8-A brief history of houses, illustrated with detailed, ink-outlined watercolors. Starting with cave dwellings, each double-page spread offers several paragraphs of basic descriptions of homes from ancient Egypt through Greece, Rome, the Vikings, and the Middle Ages, on through to modern apartments. All are enlivened by Ventura's illustrations that show exteriors, cut-away views of interiors, details of physical construction a la David Macaulay, floor plans, construction tools, and people at work or at play, inside and out. While the amount of information is limited, these interesting and informative beginnings invite repeated viewing and rereading. Originally published in Italy, the book focuses on Western architecture. Harvey Weiss's Shelters (Crowell, 1988) offers a wider ranging and different look at houses. The construction of buildings large and small is shown in Buildings (Dorling Kindersley, 1993), which has clearly detailed, full-color photographs plus drawings and a minimal text. All of these books, plus Philip Isaacson's outstanding Round Buildings, Square Buildings and Buildings That Wiggle Like a Fish (Knopf, 1990), bring attention to a long-neglected area of historical and artistic interest for students.
Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.