A History of Western Architecture

"From a very left-wing interpretation with John Berger we now go to a very right-wing interpretation from David Watkin. I also praise his smaller book, Morality and Architecture , which is possibly his most elegant summation. This book is a great celebration of the skills of architecture. What he admires are patrons working with architects to produce great masterpieces. It covers Western architecture, not world architecture. Here we are dealing with the great, famous buildings. He was such a widely read and widely travelled man and he writes beautifully. Although I’ve said Honour and Fleming do deal with architecture, you were right to suggest that mainly they’re dealing with painting and sculpture. This outstanding book gives you the history of architecture, which none of the other books I’ve mentioned do. “It’s such an intellectual challenge to think in three dimensions” You’ve got to understand the history of architecture—it’s taught at all university departments. It’s a challenging subject because it is three-dimensional: you have to intuit that if the staircase is there, and there’s a window there, then that window will not properly light this staircase—or you’ve got to move that room to fit there. People like Sir William Chambers designed these incredibly clever 18th century houses and other buildings. It’s such an intellectual challenge to think in three dimensions. A lot of people can’t do it, but you’ve got to learn if you’re going to delve into architectural history. Yes, that’s right. His book Morality and Architectu re says that we mustn’t think in terms of the 1920s and 30s idea of there being ‘good’ architecture and ‘bad’. His basic thesis is that you can disconnect morality from architecture. Therefore, he likes the modern architects who are more playful and maybe post-modernism was something he would appreciate. That was a critique of the rather serious and austere work of the international modern movement, of which he has some criticisms."