Books by John Summerson
“Summerson lets us see the city now and the way it develops over time, yes, as an emergence of a style, but he binds that together, making it inseparable from the social and economic dimensions of architecture. That’s the real strength of the work, and its continued influence over time. This was written just after World War II and really opened up a different kind of architectural history following its publication, and its many republications and subsequent additions.” Read more...
The best books on Architecture and Aesthetics
Timothy Hyde, Architects & Architectural Historian
Architecture in Britain 1530 to 1830
by John Summerson
This was the first book that made me see the order of architecture in Britain. Elizabethan architecture with a very strong English, medieval feel to it and how Inigo Jones came in the early 17th century and classicism completely took over for 100 years and then Palladianism, then Victorian Gothic and it all started to click together like a series of rooms in a long corridor, the order of things.
Interviews where books by John Summerson were recommended
The best books on British Buildings, recommended by Harry Mount
Bestselling author Harry Mount thinks that the British sell themselves short when they fail to appreciate their architecture. He also expresses his thanks that Christopher Wren didn’t redesign London on a Parisian/New York grid system following the 1666 fire.
The best books on Architecture and Aesthetics, recommended by Timothy Hyde
What’s at stake when we call a building beautiful or denounce it as ugly? MIT professor Timothy Hyde, author of Ugliness and Judgment, explores five books about the social, political and economic dimensions behind debates that often masquerade as arguments about style, but which deal with matters at the very heart of civil society.
