Part 1 The idea of a man-made world: search for a balanced world; expressions of an ideal relationship with nature; duality of man and nature; our shifting idea of nature; scientific objectivity and the humanistic's critique; summary and comments on method. Part 2 Geometry and the primacy of dwelling: from a life in nature to living in a setting shaped by man; architecture as a paradigm for order; three houses in nature; primacy of the house; natural sources for the geometry of architecture;; the nature of man-made things; the stamp of custom and convention; summary - dwelling and the sources of order. Part 3 Nature and the sense of place: place and the formation of culture; psychological and social importance of 'place'; 'place' as concrete versus abstracts; the Pantheon - a place as a metaphor for the cosmos; Muuratsalo - settlement and founding a place in nature; summary - nature and the sense of place. Part 4 Unity and the idea of harmony: the structure behind the myth; harmony, idealism, and the quest for beauty; structural analysis; the quest for unity; the Polis and the idea of s sustainable city; scale and the problem of unity; the Greek temple and the tree; summary - unity and the idea of harmony. Part 5 Time and the evolution of things: time and place as related qualities of existence; the evolution of things; invention and discovery; evolution and the nature of things; seeking meaning in time; imitation and an evolution for architecture; the orders of architecture;; the analogy of language; natural theories of architecture; summary - time and the evolution of things. Part 6 Timelessness and the idea of the classical: the idea of classical; western classical architecture - the rules; classical language of the Sung dynasty building standards; Sukiya architecture of Japan; the Sufi tradition; balancing the timeless and the temporal; common law and the evolution of custom; classical thought as the means rather than the end; summary - the timeless and the idea of the classical. Part 7 Nature and the city: the transitory city of the present; is the city natural? the city as a house; time, place, and the world beyond; summary - nature and the city.
Everyone who builds or hopes to build in our cities and countryside needs to know what this book has to say. Its merging of insights from history, anthropology, and architecture provides a timely antidote to the prevailing inhumane practices that have put the continuity of our urban civilization in peril. -- Carroll William Westfall, Professor of Architectural History, University of Virginia Give the way all too much 'architectural discourse' today uses architecture only as an occasion for an esoteric language-game that, while it would locate itself somewhere between architecture and philosophy is responsible to neither, Crowe's broadly anthropological inquiry into Nature and the Idea of a Man-Made World impresses one with its commitment to clarity and responsibility. Crowe invites us to look at the built environment as 'a kind of nature unto itself,' but also to consider the way this second nature threatens de-sensitize us to nature, including our own. Crowe would recall us to Aristotle's understanding of the city as a place for 'the good life,' where such concerns intersect with the comparatively invariant needs traditionally addressed by architecture and a thoughtful consideration of technology and the strain it has placed on the environment. The much-discussed threat to the ecosystem and the deepening problems of the city makes this a timely book that deserves a wide audience. -- Karsten Harries, Yale University Norman Crowe seeks the wonderment of a cooperation between thenatural and the man-made world, and he does so with the hand of anexcellent writer. As a professor and teacher of architecture, hehas reached out well beyond most of his colleagues to understand the history and ideas governing the current state of architecture's relation to nature. -- Kent Bloomer, Yale University Norman Crowe offers a plausible set of interpretations of the nature of the world that humankind has already built, as well as useful guidance on how we might build better in the future than we are doing now. In contrast with many conventional books that deal with the architecture of the past, he teaches us to see buildings not just as facade patterns and spaces, but also as experiences, feelings, symbols, manmade landscapes, places. This is enormously important. -- Edward Allen, architect
"Norman Crowe seeks the wonderment of a cooperation between thenatural and the man-made world, and he does so with the hand of anexcellent writer. As a professor and teacher of architecture, hehas reached out well beyond most of his colleagues to understandthe history and ideas governing the current state of architecture"srelation to nature." Kent Bloomer , Yale University "Norman Crowe offers a plausible set of interpretations of the nature of the world that humankind has already built, as well as useful guidance on how we might build better in the future than we are doing now. In contrast with many conventional books that deal with the architecture of the past, he teaches us to see buildings not just as facade patterns and spaces, but also as experiences, feelings, symbols, manmade landscapes, places. This is enormously important." Edward Allen, Architect
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