The book of Joseph Fruttenbach, Architectura civilis, is quite a hard read because of it’s old language. So reading the book was not easy from the beginning, but it was possible after all. What the book is about was clear already, but for me the keywords were important. Fruttenbach writes about how certain buildings, especially governemental, should be built. Every type of building has its chapter, finding good keywords was nothing difficult. That’s why I searched for like: churches, chapels, altars, house of God, military hospitals and hospitals.
Alberti, 10 books of architecture
Albertis 10 books is seen as an echo of Vitruvius’ writings. He references different established names, especially Plato. The 10 books discuss multiple elements of architecture and each book is about a different subject. The work is divided into ten books and includes:
- Book One: Lineaments
- Book Two: Materials
- Book Three: Construction
- Book Four: Public Works
- Book Five: Works of Individuals
- Book Six: Ornament
- Book Seven: Ornament to Sacred Buildings
- Book Eight: Ornament to Public Secular Buildings
- Book Nine: Ornament to Private Buildings
- Book Ten: Restoration of Buildings
I feel like the works of Fruttenbach and Alberti are similar, because discuss the subject of how architecture should be. Both of them describe with factual arguments – these books are argumentations for their view of architecture. The big difference of the two works is that Alberti’s books are way more detailed. 10 books with almost all elements of architecture. Fruttenbach “only” writes about one subject and in a way smaller scope.
Koolhaas, Elements of Architecture
Koolhaas is an Dutch architect who has a reputation for his contemporary architecture. Koolhaas’ Elements of Architecture is a collection of 15 volumes which are dedicated to a different subject of architecture like roof, ramp, balcony and so on. It’s his biggest work and almost a pillar for this architure. Like Fruttenbach he dedicades parts of his work to a subject of architecture and describes how it should be done. Koolhaas’ work is just dedictaed to a different subject of architecture and more detailed. Fruttenbach’s work is also in much smaller scale while Koolhaas volume almost seem gigantic compared to Fruttenbach’s. What i found interessting is that both work with alot of pictures.
Student: 20-940-417, Domeisen Angelo