Words and buildings : a vocabulary of modern architecture / Adrian Forty

This exploration of the relationship between architecture and language examines both as complex social practices. Six rigorously argued chapters investigate the language of modernism, language and drawing, masculine and feminine architecture, language metaphors, science in architecture, and the social properties of architecture.

Preface -- Pt. 1. Introduction -- 1. The language of modernism -- 2. Language and drawing -- 3. On difference: masculine and feminine -- 4. Language metaphors -- 5. 'Spatial mechanics' - scientific metaphors -- 6. 'Dead or alive' - describing 'the social' -- Pt. 2. Character -- Context -- Design -- Flexibility -- Form -- Formal -- Function -- History -- Memory -- Nature -- Order -- Simple -- Space -- Structure -- Transparency -- Truth -- Type -- User -- Bibliography -- List of illustrations -- Index

The book is divided into two parts. The first section consists of six rigorously argued chapters that investigate the language of modernism, language and drawing, 'masculine and feminine' architecture, language metaphors, science in architecture, and the social properties of architecture. The second part is a vocabulary of key words, providing rich analyses of critical terms such as Character, Form, History and Space.