The other week I talked about a review I did for Paddington Bear that had us looking for architecture, and learning some different terms to describe parts of a house. We learned things like lintel, arch and basilica. Recently Raincoast Books sent me a book to review called Amazing Architecture. This small book takes us on a whirl-wind tour all over the world to look at some amazing architecture.
From the cover:
Discover and visit more than 120 brilliant buildings around the world, featuring contemporary marvels, must–see classics and quirky constructions to appeal to every architecture fan.
What do you get?
A softcover book with a built in fly so you can easily keep your place. 130 pages filled with images from around the world. Each image is accompanied with a map to show where in the world the building is found along with a brief write up about the piece.
Some of the pieces are quite interesting in their design like the Borgund Stave church. I so liked the look of this church I went searching for more information.
In the front of the book there is a map that shows where the architecture is found, though most of them are from Europe and Asia, my son was delighted to see some were from North America as well. We see an arts centre in Portugal, the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, Sana’s skyscrapers in Yemen and Habitat 67 in Montreal. It seems like everywhere you go in the world you will see amazing architecture.
Perhaps you might like to visit the Crazy House in Vietnam.
All these interesting places to learn about and to develop a hankering to go see! It really show cases the creativity of people as well as the intelligence it takes to design unique buildings that are also safe. Buildings from as far back as 400 BC up to modern days. Good engineering isn’t limited to now-a-days that’s for certain.
My Thoughts:
This book is just filled with fascinating buildings from around the world. What a great way to add some diversity to your world studies, to take a look at some of the amazing buildings people have put together. Wouldn’t it be fun to learn the history of the shoe house, or the capsule tower, or the Corones building? It would also be a great book to leave sitting around to inspire your budding engineer or architectural student.
A Spotter’s Guide to Amazing Architecture
Lonely Planet
128 pages, softcover with built in fly
Architecture, History, Engineering
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books
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