Looking Around: A Journey through Architecture

James A. Love is an associate professor of environmental design at the
University of Calgary.

Witold Rybczynski specializes in housing research and design as a
professor of architecture at McGill University. This volume is a
collection of essays divided into three parts. The first, “Homes and
Houses,” considers the nature of domestic environments suited to
contemporary society. The second, “Special Places,” examines
buildings that are typically the focus of high-style architecture. The
third, “The Art of Building,” ranges more broadly through issues in
architecture rather than building types. Rybczynski wrote these essays
for several general interest magazines. As such, they address
architectural matters in a manner that the lay reader can enjoy.
Abstruse critiques of styles are eschewed in favor of a broader
consideration of issues and building types. Architects active in housing
seem to take a broader view of the built environment than the critics,
whose writing seldom ventures beyond analyses of form based on a
dogmatic ideology. This is true of Rybczynski. On the other hand, he
finds fault with the work of architects who fail to address
considerations he deems important. He treats their work as ignorant
rather than as formed according to a different set of intentions. In
doing so, he misses some critical questions in architecture (and art),
such as the value placed on novelty of appearance relative to that
placed on the quality of execution. In evaluating post-modern
architecture, he criticizes the use of stylistic elements inconsistent
with their application in earlier periods without noting that this also
occurred as part of the evolution of earlier stylistic revivals.