Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. 1924 1st edition. Pages in good condition. No notes or highlighting. Some marking due to age but overall an excellent copy. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Can a haphazard assemblage of buildings each conceived in isolation and expressing nothing but its own immediate purpose really be described as a city? What attribute is it which makes a building urban? My answer to this latter question may seem simple and tautological but I am venturing to give it nevertheless. In order that a building may become urban it must have urbanity. I propose to analyse the precise nature of this urbanity. Now urbanity as everybody knows is nothing more nor less than good manners and the lack of it is bad manners. I think I shall have little difficulty in showing that there can be both good and bad manners in architecture. On the other hand I wish at the outset to disclaim any intention of setting myself up as an authority on manners either architectural or of any other kind. I shall confine myself to first elements and if manners be con- sidered for the moment as an academic subject it will be found that my illustrations come well within the limits of what in the Elementary Schools of England is known as “Standard I.” The higher branches of manners its delicate inflections its subtleties and its nuances I feel quite incom- petent to discuss.