Architecture: Presence, Language, Place

 
Through an original reflection on the history of architecture and modern building practices, Norberg-Schulz analyses man’s capacity to perceive, experience and inhabit space. From this theoretical standpoint, he links modern architecture and reality as a source of inspiration.
 
This new text by Norberg-Schulz is the culmination of a decade of historical research that began with Significance of Western Architecture and Genius Loci: Landscape, Environment, Architecture. He has pursued a radical revision of architectural design in relation to the modern city and the landscape. Through his original, acute observations of historical examples in architecture and his reflections on modern man’s capacity to perceive, experience and inhabit his own space, he offers a fascinating viewpoint on the construction of the contemporary city.
The volume permits the reader to interpret and compare modes considered central to modern design: the relationship between man and space, design and its instruments, and architecture in its relationship to the landscape. It portrays numerous examples of modern and ancient architecture as well as urban and landscape systems (Paris, Urbino, Jerusalem) with a rich collection of images.
 
Christian Norberg-Schulz—born in Oslo in 1926 and graduated in Architecture at Zürich Polytechnic—studied history of architecture at Harvard University and in Rome. In 1950 joined the CIAM’s Norwegian group together with Sverre Fehn and Jorn Utzon; since 1966 is professor of Architecture at the faculty of Architecture in Oslo and in 1978 he received the degree honoris causa in Hannover and the golden medal of the France Academy of Architecture.