Towers : a historical survey
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Towers : a historical survey
Butterworth Architecture, 1989
- Other Title
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Türme aller Zeiten-aller Kulturen
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Note
Includes index
Ill. on lining papers
Translation of: Türme aller Zeiten-aller Kulturen
Description and Table of Contents
Description
From the Tower of Babel to the Sears Tower of Chicago, towers of all types are examined in this international survey. Written and compiled by engineers Erwin Heinle and Fritz Leonhardt, who have collaborated together on the design of a number of television and radio telecommunications towers. Whether built as an individual structure or as part of a more complex whole, towers have been constructed for numerous purposes throughout time. Spires, campaniles, minarets and pagodas encourage religious reflection; battlement towers and castle donjons demonstrate strength and solidity; town halls and palaces, often the dominant element of a town or village, dictate administration and civic authority; and skyscrapers proclaim corporate strength and flaunt the wealth of the commerce and trade world. Other purposes are utilitarian such as those of light houses, oil rigs, windmills, and bridge, water, and communication towers. From the East to the West, an overriding purpose of the tower has been to impress the beholder.
Beginning with "tower-like structures in nature", the book takes the reader through the centuries, dividing history into four categories: antiquity, the Middle Ages, the modern era and the present. Between antiquity and the Middle Ages are included towers from Eastern cultures revealing the influence of antiquity on towers not only in Europe but in other parts of the world. The towers that were built during the highly industrialized era - the last 100 years or so - are shown in detail because of their diversity of function and their importance for future construction. Among the many towers included in the survey are the Tower of Babel, the Tower of Pisa, Moscow's Cathedral of Saint Basil, the Cathedral of Cologne, the Taj Mahal, Mecca's Mesdshid-Al-Harem Mosque, the Eiffel Tower and the World Trade Center. For thousands of years, man has striven to build upwards. This book provides the opportunity to see hundreds of towers from around the world and to appreciate the ingenuity of their creators as well as the technological advancements made through the ages.
Table of Contents
- Survey of the history of building
- the Tower of Babel, Babylon
- Pharos, the Lighthouse of Alexandra
- towers in ancient Greece and Rome
- early Christian Byzantine, Armenian and Russian towers
- Islamic towers
- towers of Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions of Southeast and East Asia
- early Medieval and romanesque towers
- gothic towers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and England
- towers in the Medieval city and in castle complexes
- Renaissance towers - the beginnings of the modern era
- Baroque towers
- 19th and 20th century towers
- the Eiffel tower, a feat of structural engineering
- the first concrete towers
- concrete transmission towers
- steel transmission towers
- transmission and electrical masts
- water towers
- cooling towers
- lighthouses
- windmills
- bridge towers and pylons
- projects, visions, utopias
- skyscrapers as towers, 1886-1986
- contemporary church towers
- towers as city landmarks.
by "Nielsen BookData"
