Publisher's Synopsis
This study covers organicism in 19th-century architecture. Although the close connection between architecture and living nature is one of the most persistent themes in 19th-century architecture and theory, until now it has never been studied in its own right.;This book traces the roots of organicism in the artistic theory of antiquity and the Renaissance, and in 18th-century philosophy. It also presents a reading of organicism as a strategy both of invention and of interpretation, and reconstructs the context in which it functioned - the 19th-century pre-occupation with style. This is done by a close scrutiny of the designs and writings of Alberti, Schinkel, Boetticher, Semper, Ruskin, Deane & Woodward, Sullivan and Root. The continuity of themes and concerns from the Renaissance to the 19th century is demonstrated.
