Architecture History, Theory and Preservation

Architecture History, Theory and Preservation critically explores the historic development, theoretical underpinnings and conservation practices of architecture. Complete with 170 full color images, this volume presents architectural and urban examples, from Prehistory to the Middle Ages, chronologically and thematically examining contextual issues that provide each period with distinctive expressions. The special features, structural systems, materials and construction technologies are analyzed, as well as how the international community deals with the task of interpreting and preserving certain historic properties. This publication provides professors and students of architecture, art history, historic preservation and related fields with an integrated view of architecture using historical, theoretical and conservation perspectives. As an architect, architectural historian and preservationist herself, Dr Pabón-Charneco weaves a field of relationships regarding each building, creating a silent yet empowering bridge between past and present.

Arleen Pabón-Charneco holds a PhD from Northwestern University, as well as a JD, MArch and BED from the University of Puerto Rico. With the highest GPA of her graduating class, she obtained the Henry Adams AIA Medal in 1974. Since 1979 she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of Puerto Rico and Florida A&M University in the areas of architectural history, architectural theory and philosophy, architectural design and historic preservation. At both institutions she served as assistant and associate Dean. Dr Pabón-Charneco was Puerto Rico's State Historic Preservation Officer twice. She is a member of the Washington DC Bar, as well as a trustee emeritus of both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust. In addition, she is a corresponding academician of the St Jordi Royal Academy of Fines Arts of Catalonia. A consultant in architectural history, historic preservation and cultural interpretation, she is also an instructor at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Florida State University.

Introduction 1. A Fixed Place Under the Sky: The Invention of Architecture 2. Out of The Cave: Neolithic Architecture 3. Rivers of Cultures: Mesopotamian and Egyptian Architecture 4. When the Gods Were Human: Minoan and Mycenaean Architecture 5. Frogs Around a Pond: Architecture in Ancient Greece 6. In the Tuscan Manner: Etruscan Architecture 7. As Many Stars As In The Sky: Roman Architecture 8. One True Faith: Buddhist, Christian, Islamic and Shinto Architecture 9. The Ages in the Middle: Early Medieval and Romanesque Architecture 10. A Strange Region of the Universe: Gothic Architecture 11. Where Freedom Dwells: The City Revisited