{"title":"Witold Rybczynski","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the insightful world of Witold Rybczynski, where architecture, urbanism, and everyday living intertwine. A captivating read for those interested in design, history, and the evolution of our surroundings.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"perfect-house-book-witold-rybczynski-9780743221399","title":"The Perfect House","description":"Renaissance master Andrea Palladio's architectural DNA can be seen on modern-day icons from Buckingham Palace to the White House, from numerous English stately homes to Virginian plantation houses. In THE PERFECT HOUSE Witold Rybczynski travels along the Brenta River in north-eastern Italy to experience the surviving original Palladian villas for himself. He sets out to discover how a rustic sixteenth-century stonemason, born Andrea di Pietro, first had to become 'cultured' before he could be one of the most respected architects of all time, and how Palladio managed to bring the elegance of Ancient Rome to the Venetian countryside. Out of the chaos of hired cars and cheap flights, towns packed with 'Ristoranti Palladio' and herds of tourists, Rybczynski savours moments of epiphany as he contemplates Palladio's perfect houses. Part travelogue, part historical biography, part architectural guide, THE PERFECT HOUSE is a delightful and enlightening exploration of the birth of domestic architecture and the man who spawned it.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49516932104465,"sku":"GOR001717539","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51206921584913,"sku":"GOR001843096","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52104799584529,"sku":"CIN0743221397G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743221397.jpg?v=1751419628"},{"product_id":"clearing-in-the-distance-book-witold-rybczynski-9780684865751","title":"A Clearing in the Distance","description":"In a brilliant collaboration between writer and subject, the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHome\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCity Life\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates Frederick Law Olmsted's role as a major cultural figure and a man at the epicenter of nineteenth-century American history. \u003cbr\u003e We know Olmsted through the physical legacy of his stunning landscapes -- among them, New York's Central Park, California's Stanford University campus, Boston's Back Bay Fens, Illinois's Riverside community, Asheville's Biltmore Estate, and Louisville's park system. He was a landscape architect before that profession was founded, designed the first large suburban community in the United States, foresaw the need for national parks, and devised one of the country's first regional plans. \u003cbr\u003e Olmsted's contemporaries knew a man of even more extraordinarily diverse talents. Born in 1822, he traveled to China on a merchant ship at the age of twenty-one. He cofounded \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e magazine and was an early voice against slavery. He wrote books about the South and about his exploration of the Texas frontier. He managed California's largest gold mine and, during the Civil War, served as general secretary to the United States Sanitary Commission, the precursor of the Red Cross. \u003cbr\u003e Olmsted was both ruthlessly pragmatic and a visionary. To create Central Park, he managed thousands of employees who moved millions of cubic yards of stone and earth and planted over 300,000 trees and shrubs. In laying it out, we determined to think of no results to be realized in less than forty years, he told his son, Rick. I have all my life been considering distant effects and always sacrificing immediate success and applause to that of the future. To this day, Olmsted's ideas about people, nature, and society are expressed across the nation -- above all, in his parks, so essential to the civilized life of our cities. \u003cbr\u003e Rybczynski's passion for his subject and his understanding of Olmsted's immense complexity and accomplishments make this book a triumphant work. In \u003ci\u003eA Clearing in the Distance, \u003c\/i\u003e the story of a great nineteenth-century American becomes an intellectual adventure.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49518545273105,"sku":"CIN0684865750G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50230818537745,"sku":"CIN0684865750VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51005543645457,"sku":"NIN9780684865751","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51438597013777,"sku":"GOR004613497","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51693592183057,"sku":"CIN0684865750A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0684865750.jpg?v=1752575052"},{"product_id":"home-book-witold-rybczynski-9780140102314","title":"Home","description":"Walk through five centuries of homes both great and small—from the smoke-filled manor halls of the Middle Ages to today's Ralph Lauren-designed environments—on a house tour like no other, one that delightfully explicates the very idea of \"home.\"You'll see how social and cultural changes influenced styles of decoration and furnishing, learn the connection between wall-hung religious tapestries and wall-to-wall carpeting, discover how some of our most welcome luxuries were born of architectural necessity, and much more.  Most of all, Home opens a rare window into our private lives—and how we really want to live.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49521642373393,"sku":"GOR002227282","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49563884355857,"sku":"CIN0140102310G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49643537727761,"sku":"GOR001795609","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49773044662545,"sku":"CIN0140102310A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50270762369297,"sku":"GOR010405212","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50296404508945,"sku":"CIN0140102310VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50346963239185,"sku":"GOR001908611","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52508672819473,"sku":"NIN9780140102314","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0140102310.jpg?v=1750736918"},{"product_id":"most-beautiful-house-in-the-world-book-witold-rybczynski-9780140105667","title":"The Most Beautiful House in the World","description":"\"A winning book, a pleasure to read...a revelation about what architects actually do and how they go about doing it.\" -\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Witold Rybezynski takes us on an extraordinary odyssey as he tells the story of designing and building of his own house. Rybezynski's project began as a workshed; through a series of \"happy accidents,\" however, the structure gradually evolved into a full-fledge house.\u003cbr\u003e                \u003cbr\u003e In tracing this evolution, he touches on matters both theoretical and practical, writing on such diverse topics as the distinguished structural descendants of the humble barn, the ritualistic origins of the elements of classical architecture, and the connections between dress and habitation, and between architecture and gastronomy. Rybezynski discusses feng shui, the Chinese art of placing a home in the landscape, and also considers the theories and work of such architects as Palladio, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright. An eloquent examination of the links between being and building, \u003ci\u003eThe Most Beautiful House in the World\u003c\/i\u003e offers insights into the joys of \"installing ourselves in a place, of establishing a spot where it be safe to dream.\"","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49525693710609,"sku":"GOR002570118","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49660958834961,"sku":"GOR002084793","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49777786388753,"sku":"CIN0140105662G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50345313468689,"sku":"CIN0140105662A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999376445713,"sku":"NIN9780140105667","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51422752047377,"sku":"CIN0140105662VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52996765221137,"sku":"GOR011545882","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0140105662.jpg?v=1751069723"},{"product_id":"perfect-house-book-witold-rybczynski-9780743205863","title":"The Perfect House","description":"The bestselling author of ONE GOOD TURN pursues his most appropriate subject yet: Andrea Palladio, the Shakespeare of Renaissance architects, who gave us the word 'Palladian' but about whom little is known. A journey along the Brenta River in northeastern Italy, just a short distance from Venice, reveals the origin of the architecture of the private house, an art first practiced by Andrea Palladio. Until Palladio began designing simple, gorgeous, perfectly proportioned villas, architectural genius was reserved for temples and palaces. Palladio not only designed and built, he wrote. His 1570 architectural treatise was read and studied by great thinkers as diverse as Thomas Jeffferson and Inigo Jones, and it proved to be critical to the design of Monticello and the White House. More than just a study of one of history's seminal architectural figures, THE PERFECT HOUSE reflects Rybczynski's intimacy with and enthusiasm for his subject. He not only reveals why the villas were so architecurally and culturally influential, he also imparts his enormous affection and admiration for the man who designed them. Embracing the elements of Rybczynski's most successful books on domestic architecture, HOME and THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HOUSE IN THE WORLD this charming, revelatory meditation explores the dawn of domestic architecture, and provides a new way of looking at every building we inhabit or visit today.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49536354844945,"sku":"GOR003975789","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49612490899729,"sku":"GOR001674744","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49767823180049,"sku":"CIN0743205863G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49889981366545,"sku":"CIN0743205863VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50944023560465,"sku":"CIN0743205863A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51704667275537,"sku":"GOR005726697","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743205863.jpg?v=1751444984"},{"product_id":"perfect-house-book-witold-rybczynski-9780743205870","title":"The Perfect House","description":"The award-winning author of A Clearing in the Distance focuses on the designs, constructions, and writings of the Italian Renaissance architect, noting the influence of his works on such structures as the White House. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49541138284817,"sku":"GOR006382257","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50296785764625,"sku":"CIN0743205871A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50406432178449,"sku":"CIN0743205871VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51006468686097,"sku":"NIN9780743205870","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52104756134161,"sku":"CIN0743205871G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743205871.jpg?v=1751442340"},{"product_id":"biography-of-a-building-book-witold-rybczynski-9780500342763","title":"The Biography of a Building","description":"Tells the story of the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia, built to contain Sir Robert and Lady Sainsbury's private collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures, and opened in April 1978. This title begins with the history of the Sainsbury's collection.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49543645954321,"sku":"GOR004072650","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49956172464401,"sku":"CIN0500342768G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52940763070737,"sku":"CIN0500342768VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0500342768.jpg?v=1751293905"},{"product_id":"one-good-turn-book-witold-rybczynski-9780743208499","title":"One Good Turn","description":"From a da Vinci sketch to a Phillips, this is the story of the partnership between the screw and the screwdriver, the people who perfected it, and the innovations that made it possible.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49545938764049,"sku":"GOR001480266","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50513762320657,"sku":"GOR001646910","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52109052739857,"sku":"GOR007376486","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743208498.jpg?v=1750701147"},{"product_id":"one-good-turn-book-witold-rybczynski-9780743208505","title":"One Good Turn","description":"From a da Vinci sketch to a Phillips, this is the story of the partnership between the screw and the screwdriver, the people who perfected it, and the innovations that made it possible.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49570287255825,"sku":"GOR001397442","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49605156569361,"sku":"GOR003324132","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50336131154193,"sku":"GOR003011799","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52104764621073,"sku":"CIN0743208501G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743208501.jpg?v=1751168899"},{"product_id":"how-architecture-works-book-witold-rybczynski-9780374534820","title":"How Architecture Works","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn essential toolkit for understanding architecture as both art form and the setting for our everyday lives\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eWe spend most of our days and nights in buildings, living and working and sometimes playing. Buildings often overawe us with their beauty. Architecture is both setting for our everyday lives and public art form--but it remains mysterious to most of us.\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eHow Architecture Works\u003c\/i\u003e, Witold Rybczynski, one of our best, most stylish critics and winner of the Vincent Scully Prize for his architectural writing, answers our most fundamental questions about how good--and not-so-good--buildings are designed and constructed. Introducing the reader to the rich and varied world of modern architecture, he takes us behind the scenes, revealing how architects as different as Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, and Robert A. M. Stern envision and create their designs. He teaches us how to read plans, how buildings respond to their settings, and how the smallest detail--of a stair balustrade, for instance--can convey an architect's vision. Ranging widely from a war memorial in London to an opera house in St. Petersburg, from the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., to a famous architect's private retreat in downtown Princeton, \u003ci\u003eHow Architecture Works\u003c\/i\u003e, explains the central elements that make up good building design. It is an enlightening humanist's toolkit for thinking about the built environment and seeing it afresh.\u003cbr\u003e Architecture, if it is any good, speaks to all of us, Rybczynski writes. This revelatory book is his grand tour of architecture today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49571824992529,"sku":"GOR011597398","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50351981756689,"sku":"CIN0374534829G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51001845743889,"sku":"NIN9780374534820","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51732234436881,"sku":"CIN0374534829VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374534829.jpg?v=1751071662"},{"product_id":"look-of-architecture-book-witold-rybczynski-9780195134438","title":"The Look of Architecture","description":"Witold Rybczynski begins his book by stating that most architects deny that they fit into any stylistic form. We cannont, however, separate Frank Lloyd Wright from his hat and cape, or Le Corbusier from his heavy round glasses. Similarly, buildings present a public face that do not always betray their function. In this essay, he takes a short tour of modern architecture and talks about what style in architecture means. Rybczynski shows how style in clothing and architecture are related, and discusses why style became a taboo subject in the 20th-century. With descriptions of particular buildings, he examines the work of brilliant architects including Mies van der Rohe, Robert Venturi, and Frank Gehry, illustrating his argument that contrary to modernist dogma, form does not follow function. Rybczynski leaves the reader with a fresh way of looking at architecture.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49578649813265,"sku":"GOR001844093","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50320811032849,"sku":"CIN0195134435G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50797121372433,"sku":"CIN0195134435VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52699043528977,"sku":"GOR012725725","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0195134435.jpg?v=1750843555"},{"product_id":"last-harvest-book-witold-rybczynski-9780743235969","title":"Last Harvest","description":"A delightful coloring book that celebrates the magnificent beauty of the edible plant kingdom. This beautiful, artfully illustrated coloring book is an enchanting journey of discovering the seasonal delicacies found in forests, fields, gardens, and urban farmer's markets. The user will get lost in the intricate hypnotizing details of delectable images of strawberry patches; bouquets of fresh herbs; beehives and honeybees; fall harvest baskets and nuts rolling on the forest floor. This tactile and creative activity book encourages participants to turn off their screens and de-stress, and perhaps inspires them to take out their gardening gloves to plant some radishes or to take a trip to the farmer's market. This charming, elegantly designed volume of illustrations--great for such mediums as colored pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor--is a treat for the senses, guaranteed to inspire food lovers, nature enthusiasts, gardeners, and parents wanting to encourage their children to appreciate the wonders of nature's edible bounty.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49580753813777,"sku":"GOR013674112","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49726236262673,"sku":"CIN0743235967G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51137114341649,"sku":"CIN0743235967VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743235967.jpg?v=1751075173"},{"product_id":"looking-around-book-witold-rybczynski-9780140168891","title":"Looking Around","description":"From the opening sentences of his first book on architecture, Home, Witold Rybczynski seduced readers into a new appreciation of the spaces they live in. He also introduced us to \"an unerringly lucid writer who knows how to translate architectural ideas into layman's terms\" (The Dallas Morning News). Rybczynski's vast knowledge, his sense of wonder, and his elegantly uncluttered prose shine on every page of his latest meditation on the art of building. Looking Around is about architecture as an art of compromise—between beauty and function, aspiration and engineering, builders and clients. It is the story of the Seagram Building in New York and the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts in Columbus, Ohio—a museum that opened without a single painting on view, so that critics could better appreciate its design. But what of the visitors who want a building that displays art well? What of those who work in the building? Looking Around explores the notion of the architect as superstar and assesses giants from Palladio to Michael Graves, styles from classicism to high tech. It demonstrates how architecture actually works—or doesn't—in corporate headquarters, airports, private homes, and the special buildings designed to represent our civilization.   For all its erudition, Looking Around is also bracingly straightforward. Rybczynski looks closely and critically at structures that may once have dazzled us with their ostentation and expense, and sees them as triumphs or failures—of aesthetic ideals and of lasting function. This is a fascinating and illuminating book about an art form integral to our lives.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49586480349457,"sku":"GOR006547723","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50344655257873,"sku":"CIN0140168893G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50344672035089,"sku":"CIN0140168893A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50345344991505,"sku":"CIN0140168893VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999383785745,"sku":"NIN9780140168891","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0140168893.jpg?v=1751323468"},{"product_id":"how-architecture-works-book-witold-rybczynski-9780374211745","title":"How Architecture Works","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn essential toolkit for understanding architecture as both art form and the setting for our everyday lives\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eWe spend most of our days and nights in buildings, living and working and sometimes playing. Buildings often overawe us with their beauty. Architecture is both setting for our everyday lives and public art form--but it remains mysterious to most of us.\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eHow Architecture Works\u003c\/i\u003e, Witold Rybczynski, one of our best, most stylish critics and winner of the Vincent Scully Prize for his architectural writing, answers our most fundamental questions about how good--and not-so-good--buildings are designed and constructed. Introducing the reader to the rich and varied world of modern architecture, he takes us behind the scenes, revealing how architects as different as Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, and Robert A. M. Stern envision and create their designs. He teaches us how to read plans, how buildings respond to their settings, and how the smallest detail--of a stair balustrade, for instance--can convey an architect's vision. Ranging widely from a war memorial in London to an opera house in St. Petersburg, from the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., to a famous architect's private retreat in downtown Princeton, \u003ci\u003eHow Architecture Works\u003c\/i\u003e, explains the central elements that make up good building design. It is an enlightening humanist's toolkit for thinking about the built environment and seeing it afresh.\u003cbr\u003e Architecture, if it is any good, speaks to all of us, Rybczynski writes. This revelatory book is his grand tour of architecture today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49625909625105,"sku":"GOR009627738","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49696673857809,"sku":"CIN0374211744G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50828689932561,"sku":"CIN0374211744VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52770489532689,"sku":"CIN0374211744A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374211744.jpg?v=1751357964"},{"product_id":"looking-around-book-witold-rybczynski-9780743221382","title":"Looking Around","description":"This collection of essays has an eclectic range which encompasses all that is to be celebrated, discussed and fondly remembered about the buildings that shape our lives. History's reverberations great and small are explored - from the Chinese Cultural Revolution to quieter changes in the European living room. So too are shifts in taste - from modernism to the views of Prince Charles. Political questions raised by the home are brought to polemical life - the charms of the small home, the poetry of the suburbs, the symbolism of the porch, and the rise of the \"androgynous home\". Rybczynski sounds out buildings as diverse as museums and airports, model homes and postmodernist dreams, listening for Geothe's \"frozen music\".","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49626482737425,"sku":"GOR004580106","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50181616959761,"sku":"GOR001940899","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743221389.jpg?v=1751440169"},{"product_id":"looking-around-a-journey-through-architecture-a-saturday-night-book-ser-book-rybczynski-witold-9780002157933","title":"Looking Around : A Journey Through Architecture (A Saturday Night Book Ser.)","description":"From the opening sentences of his first book on architecture, \u003cb\u003eHome\u003c\/b\u003e, Witold Rybczynski seduced readers into a new appreciation of the spaces they live in. He also introduced us to an unerringly lucid writer who knows how to translate architectural ideas into layman's terms (\u003cb\u003eThe Dallas Morning News\u003c\/b\u003e). Rybczynski's vast knowledge, his sense of wonder, and his elegantly uncluttered prose shine on every page of his latest meditation on the art of building. \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLooking Around\u003c\/b\u003e is about architecture as an art of compromise\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003ebetween beauty and function, aspiration and engineering, builders and clients. It is the story of the Seagram Building in New York and the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts in Columbus, Ohio\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003ea museum that opened without a single painting on view, so that critics could better appreciate its design. But what of the visitors who want a building that displays art well? What of those who work in the building? \u003cb\u003eLooking Around\u003c\/b\u003e explores the notion of the architect as superstar and assesses giants from Palladio to Michael Graves, styles from classicism to high tech. It demonstrates how architecture actually works\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003eor doesn't\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003ein corporate headquarters, airports, private homes, and the special buildings designed to represent our civilization. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor all its erudition, \u003cb\u003eLooking Around\u003c\/b\u003e is also bracingly straightforward. Rybczynski looks closely and critically at structures that may once have dazzled us with their ostentation and expense, and sees them as triumphs or failures\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003eof aesthetic ideals and of lasting function. This is a fascinating and illuminating book about an art form integral to our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49631718670609,"sku":"GOR012601309","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50269388275985,"sku":"CIN0002157934G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0002157934.jpg?v=1751322259"},{"product_id":"city-life-book-witold-rybczynski-9780684813028","title":"City Life","description":"In this sweeping cultural history, the author of Home and The Most Beautiful House in the World traces the development of American cities and city life from the early colonial settlements to the new downtowns of skyscrapers and high-rise apartment buildings. A fascinating investigation of what cities--especially modern cities--should be like.--Roger Starr, The Wall Street Journal.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49652247986449,"sku":"GOR012891618","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49865072443665,"sku":"CIN0684813025G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50356321255697,"sku":"CIN0684813025A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50356326007057,"sku":"CIN0684813025VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0684813025.jpg?v=1750816698"},{"product_id":"mcgill-a-celebration-book-witold-rybczynski-9780773507951","title":"McGill: a Celebration","description":"Told in ten parts by prominent Montreal writers and distinguished graduates, the story of McGill unfolds with anecdotal charm and insightful overview. The lively text recaptures the spirit of campus life from the time of the university's beginnings and recounts the exploits and accomplishments of its grand personages and colourful figures. In addition, it explores McGill's significance and influence in the context of the community and country of which it is a part. More than one hundred specially commissioned, full-colour photographs illustrate this handsome, large-format volume, while rare archival shots provide a fascinating glimpse of early life at the university. The stunning photography includes images of campus life throughout the seasons by noted Montreal photographer George Zimbel, powerful architectural shots by David Duchow, exquisite, revealing interiors by Mark Ruwedel, and skilful photographs of memorable McGill treasures by Pierre Charrier. Anyone who was ever a part of the McGill experience will find McGill: A Celebration informative, charming, and captivating -- some very special memories will be rekindled. For others not so fortunate, it will go a long way toward making up what was missed.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49652260372753,"sku":"GOR012887903","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0773507957.jpg?v=1761387022"},{"product_id":"home-book-witold-rybczynski-9780743404433","title":"Home","description":"This text takes a closer look at the place we all know, home. From Jane Austen's homely novels to the sleek lines of Art Deco, from luxurious Rococo to the nostalgia of Ralph Lauren, this book peels away the layers of design, technology and habit to reveal something of the true nature of home.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49661037281553,"sku":"GOR003626376","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49788110831889,"sku":"CIN0743404432G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53497969606929,"sku":"GOR004713995","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743404432.jpg?v=1751435773"},{"product_id":"most-beautiful-house-in-the-world-book-witold-rybczynski-9780670819812","title":"The Most Beautiful House in the World","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49725795500305,"sku":"CIN0670819816A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49756825190673,"sku":"CIN0670819816G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50175916376337,"sku":"CIN0670819816VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50500422205713,"sku":"GOR003079592","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0670819816.jpg?v=1751008565"},{"product_id":"story-of-architecture-book-witold-rybczynski-9780300246063","title":"The Story of Architecture","description":"An inviting exploration of architecture across cultures and centuries by one of the field’s eminent authors     “Rybczynski’s expansive account traces the influence of social, technological, and economic shifts on architecture across centuries.”—New York Times Book Review    “The finest architectural writer in our language.”—Mark Alan Hewitt, New Criterion     In this sweeping history, from the Stone Age to the present day, Witold Rybczynski shows how architectural ideals have been affected by technological, economic, and social changes—and by changes in taste. The host of examples ranges from places of worship such as Hagia Sophia and Brunelleschi’s Duomo to living spaces such as the Katsura Imperial Villa and the Alhambra, national icons such as the Lincoln Memorial and the Sydney Opera House, and skyscrapers such as the Seagram Building and Beijing’s CCTV headquarters. Rybczynski’s narrative emphasizes the ways that buildings across time and space are united by the human desire for order, meaning, and beauty.     This is the story of architecture’s physical manifestation of the universal aspiration to celebrate, honor, and commemorate, and an exploration of the ways that each building is a unique product of patrons, architects, and builders. Firm in opinion, even-handed, and rooted in scholarship, this book will delight anyone interested in understanding the buildings they use, visit, and pass by each day.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49740469698833,"sku":"NGR9780300246063","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49930884579601,"sku":"CIN0300246064VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50153825632529,"sku":"GOR013872695","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50244152721681,"sku":"GOR013896894","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50490988986641,"sku":"CIN0300246064G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51000714854673,"sku":"NIN9780300246063","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300246064.jpg?v=1751435515"},{"product_id":"clearing-in-the-distance-book-witold-rybczynski-9780684824635","title":"A Clearing in the Distance","description":"In a brilliant collaboration between writer and subject, the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHome\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCity Life\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates Frederick Law Olmsted's role as a major cultural figure and a man at the epicenter of nineteenth-century American history. \u003cbr\u003e We know Olmsted through the physical legacy of his stunning landscapes -- among them, New York's Central Park, California's Stanford University campus, Boston's Back Bay Fens, Illinois's Riverside community, Asheville's Biltmore Estate, and Louisville's park system. He was a landscape architect before that profession was founded, designed the first large suburban community in the United States, foresaw the need for national parks, and devised one of the country's first regional plans. \u003cbr\u003e Olmsted's contemporaries knew a man of even more extraordinarily diverse talents. Born in 1822, he traveled to China on a merchant ship at the age of twenty-one. He cofounded \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e magazine and was an early voice against slavery. He wrote books about the South and about his exploration of the Texas frontier. He managed California's largest gold mine and, during the Civil War, served as general secretary to the United States Sanitary Commission, the precursor of the Red Cross. \u003cbr\u003e Olmsted was both ruthlessly pragmatic and a visionary. To create Central Park, he managed thousands of employees who moved millions of cubic yards of stone and earth and planted over 300,000 trees and shrubs. In laying it out, we determined to think of no results to be realized in less than forty years, he told his son, Rick. I have all my life been considering distant effects and always sacrificing immediate success and applause to that of the future. To this day, Olmsted's ideas about people, nature, and society are expressed across the nation -- above all, in his parks, so essential to the civilized life of our cities. \u003cbr\u003e Rybczynski's passion for his subject and his understanding of Olmsted's immense complexity and accomplishments make this book a triumphant work. In \u003ci\u003eA Clearing in the Distance, \u003c\/i\u003e the story of a great nineteenth-century American becomes an intellectual adventure.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49759658869009,"sku":"CIN0684824639G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50323875332369,"sku":"CIN0684824639VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50359801020689,"sku":"CIN0684824639A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51005567533329,"sku":"NIN9780684824635","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51361511473425,"sku":"GOR006605112","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51663095234833,"sku":"GOR005544983","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53270424158481,"sku":"GOR007026465","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0684824639.jpg?v=1750700228"},{"product_id":"vizcaya-book-witold-rybczynski-9780812239515","title":"Vizcaya","description":"The Miami estate of Vizcaya, like its palatial contemporaries Biltmore and San Simeon, represents an achievement of the Gilded Age, when country houses and their gardens were a conspicuous measure of personal wealth and power.  In Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers, a celebrated architecture critic and writer and an award-winning landscape architect explore the little-known story of Vizcaya, an extraordinary national treasure. Witold Rybczynski and Laurie Olin use a rich collection of illustrations, historic photographs, and narrative to document the creation of this stunning house and landscape. Vizcaya was completed in 1916 as the winter retreat of Chicago industrialist James Deering. The cosmopolitan bachelor, who chose Miami for its warm climate, enlisted the guidance of artist Paul Chalfin, with whom he traveled throughout Italy to survey houses and gardens. With the assistance of architect F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr., and garden designer Diego Suarez, the 180-acre site on Biscayne Bay was transformed into a grand estate, complete with lagoons, canals, citrus groves, a farm village, a yacht harbor, and a 40-room Baroque mansion.  The lure of this architectural and landscape masterpiece, named for a Spanish Basque province, is undeniable. John Singer Sargent planned a short visit in 1917 but stayed for several months, producing an inspired series of watercolors, many of which are reproduced here for the first time. The book is further enriched by archival material and by the color images of noted photographer Steven Brooke, paying homage to Vizcaya as a lens through which readers learn about architecture, landscape and garden design, interior decoration, and art.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49931504615697,"sku":"CIN0812239512G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008005898513,"sku":"NIN9780812239515","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51178640769297,"sku":"CIN0812239512VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51576286249233,"sku":"GOR005381436","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0812239512.jpg?v=1750849663"},{"product_id":"last-harvest-book-witold-rybczynski-9780743235976","title":"Last Harvest","description":"When Witold Rybczynski first heard about New Daleville, it was only a developer's idea, attached to ninety acres of cornfield an hour and a half west of Philadelphia. Over the course of five years, Rybczynski met and talked to everyone involved in the building of this residential subdivision -- from the developers to the township leaders, whose approval they needed, to the home builders and engineers and, ultimately, the first families who moved in. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Always eloquent and illuminating, the award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eNow I Sit Me Down \u003c\/i\u003elooks at this neotraditional project, with its houses built close together to encourage a sense of intimacy and community, and explains the trends in American domestic architecture -- from where we place our kitchens and fences to why our bathrooms get larger every year. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eLast Harvest\u003c\/i\u003e was voted one of the ten best books of 2008 by the editors of Planetizen, and as Publishers Weekly said, Rybczynski provides historical and cultural perspectives in a style reminiscent of Malcolm Gladwell, debunking the myth of urban sprawl and explaining American homeowners' preference for single-family dwellings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49948012904721,"sku":"CIN0743235975A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50962004541713,"sku":"CIN0743235975G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51333224071441,"sku":"CIN0743235975VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51547549073681,"sku":"GOR014323759","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743235975.jpg?v=1751428869"},{"product_id":"one-good-turn-a-natural-history-of-the-screwdriver-and-the-screw-book-witold-rybczynski-9780684867304","title":"One Good Turn: a Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe Best Tool of the Millennium\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The seeds of Rybczynski's elegant and illuminating new book were sown by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, \u003c\/i\u003e whose editors asked him to write an essay identifying the best tool of the millennium. The award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eHome\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Clearing in the Distance\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eNow I Sit Me Down\u003c\/i\u003e, Rybczynski once built a house using only hand tools. His intimate knowledge of the toolbox -- both its contents and its history -- serves him beautifully on his quest. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eOne Good Turn\u003c\/i\u003e is a story starring Archimedes, who invented the water screw and introduced the helix, and Leonardo, who sketched a machine for carving wood screws. It is a story of mechanical discovery and genius that takes readers from ancient Greece to car design in the age of American industry. Rybczynski writes an ode to the screw, without which there would be no telescope, no microscope -- in short, no enlightenment science. One of our finest cultural and architectural historians, Rybczynski renders a graceful, original, and engaging portrait of the tool that changed the course of civilization.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49983426658577,"sku":"CIN0684867303VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50359200678161,"sku":"CIN0684867303A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50415135621393,"sku":"GOR002596956","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51005529981201,"sku":"NIN9780684867304","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52153690751249,"sku":"GOR007016832","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53112767742225,"sku":"CIN0684867303G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0684867303.jpg?v=1751440841"},{"product_id":"now-i-sit-me-down-book-witold-rybczynski-9780374223212","title":"Now I Sit Me Down","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA grand tour of the chair through the ages by our foremost writer on design\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHave you ever wondered where rocking chairs came from, or why cheap plastic chairs are suddenly everywhere? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eNow I Sit Me Down\u003c\/i\u003e, the distinguished architect and writer Witold Rybczynski chronicles the history of the chair from the folding stools of pharaonic Egypt to the ubiquitous stackable monobloc chairs of today. He tells the stories of the inventor of the bentwood chair, Michael Thonet, and of the creators of the first molded-plywood chair, Charles and Ray Eames. He reveals the history of chairs to be a social history--of different ways of sitting, of changing manners and attitudes, and of varying tastes. The history of chairs is the history of who we are. We learn how the ancient Chinese switched from sitting on the floor to sitting in a chair, and how the iconic chair of Middle America--the BarcaLounger--traces its roots back to the Bauhaus. Rybczynski weaves a rich tapestry that draws on art and design history, personal experience, and historical accounts. And he pairs these stories with his own delightful hand-drawn illustrations: colonial rockers and English cabrioles, languorous chaise longues and no-nonsense ergonomic task chairs--they're all here. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The famous Danish furniture designer Hans Wegner once remarked, A chair is only finished when someone sits in it. As Rybczynski tells it, the way we choose to sit and what we choose to sit on speak volumes about our values, our tastes, and the things we hold dear.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50007039475985,"sku":"CIN0374223211G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50827748344081,"sku":"GOR009019307","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52103511408913,"sku":"CIN0374223211A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52771437674769,"sku":"CIN0374223211VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374223211.jpg?v=1751071546"},{"product_id":"waiting-for-the-weekend-book-witold-rybczynski-9780670830015","title":"Waiting For the Weekend","description":"We work, Aristotle wrote, in order to have leisure. Today, this is still true. But is the leisure that Aristotle spoke of--the freedom to do nothing--the same as the leisure we look forward to each weekend? There have always been breaks from the routine of work--taboo days, market days, public festivals, holy days--we couldn't survive without them. In Waiting for the Weekend, Witold Rybczynski unfolds the history and evolution of leisure time in Western civilization, from Aristotle, through the Middle Ages, to the present. Along the way, he explores how the psychological needs that leisure time seeks to fulfill have changed as the nature of work has changed.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50111148785937,"sku":"CIN0670830011G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50306277212433,"sku":"CIN0670830011VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50445244662033,"sku":"GOR002104354","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51616417251601,"sku":"GOR008424555","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/B000JZQLUY.jpg?v=1751008577"},{"product_id":"now-i-sit-me-down-book-witold-rybczynski-9780374537036","title":"Now I Sit Me Down","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA grand tour of the chair through the ages by our foremost writer on design\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Have you ever wondered where rocking chairs came from, or why cheap plastic chairs are suddenly everywhere?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eNow I Sit Me Down\u003c\/i\u003e, the distinguished architect and writer Witold Rybczynski chronicles the history of the chair from the folding stools of pharaonic Egypt to the ubiquitous stackable monobloc chairs of today. He tells the stories of the inventor of the bentwood chair, Michael Thonet, and of the creators of the first molded-plywood chair, Charles and Ray Eames. He reveals the history of chairs to be a social history--of different ways of sitting, of changing manners and attitudes, and of varying tastes. The history of chairs is the history of who we are. We learn how the ancient Chinese switched from sitting on the floor to sitting in a chair, and how the iconic chair of Middle America--the BarcaLounger--traces its roots back to the Bauhaus. Rybczynski weaves a rich tapestry that draws on art and design history, personal experience, and historical accounts. And he pairs these stories with his own delightful hand-drawn illustrations: colonial rockers and English cabrioles, languorous chaise longues and no-nonsense ergonomic task chairs--they're all here.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The famous Danish furniture designer Hans Wegner once remarked, \"A chair is only finished when someone sits in it.\" As Rybczynski tells it, the way we choose to sit and what we choose to sit on speak volumes about our values, our tastes, and the things we hold dear.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50130848547089,"sku":"GOR009360543","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50761919234321,"sku":"CIN0374537038G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51001864323345,"sku":"NIN9780374537036","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374537038.jpg?v=1751391035"},{"product_id":"one-good-turn-book-witold-rybczynski-9780684867298","title":"One Good Turn","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe Best Tool of the Millennium\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The seeds of Rybczynski's elegant and illuminating new book were sown by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, \u003c\/i\u003e whose editors asked him to write an essay identifying the best tool of the millennium. The award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eHome\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Clearing in the Distance\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eNow I Sit Me Down\u003c\/i\u003e, Rybczynski once built a house using only hand tools. His intimate knowledge of the toolbox -- both its contents and its history -- serves him beautifully on his quest. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eOne Good Turn\u003c\/i\u003e is a story starring Archimedes, who invented the water screw and introduced the helix, and Leonardo, who sketched a machine for carving wood screws. It is a story of mechanical discovery and genius that takes readers from ancient Greece to car design in the age of American industry. Rybczynski writes an ode to the screw, without which there would be no telescope, no microscope -- in short, no enlightenment science. One of our finest cultural and architectural historians, Rybczynski renders a graceful, original, and engaging portrait of the tool that changed the course of civilization.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50181450400017,"sku":"CIN068486729XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50359197892881,"sku":"CIN068486729XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50506890838289,"sku":"GOR008819290","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50507062542609,"sku":"GOR005027835","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52104311603473,"sku":"CIN068486729XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/068486729X.jpg?v=1750700302"},{"product_id":"home-book-witold-rybczynski-9780670811472","title":"Home","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50182275563793,"sku":"CIN0670811475G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50960489316625,"sku":"CIN0670811475VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51820907299089,"sku":"CIN0670811475A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52877673529617,"sku":"GOR005153609","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0670811475.jpg?v=1751073659"},{"product_id":"makeshift-metropolis-book-witold-rybczynski-9781416561262","title":"Makeshift Metropolis","description":"In this new work, prizewinning author, professor, and Slate architecture critic Witold Rybczynski returns to the territory he knows best: writing about the way people live, just as he did in the acclaimed bestsellers Home and A Clearing in the Distance. In Makeshift Metropolis, Rybczynski has drawn upon a lifetime of observing cities to craft a concise and insightful book that is at once an intellectual history and a masterful critique. \u003cbr\u003eMakeshift Metropolis describes how current ideas about urban planning evolved from the movements that defined the twentieth century, such as City Beautiful, the Garden City, and the seminal ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright and Jane Jacobs. If the twentieth century was the age of planning, we now find ourselves in the age of the market, Rybczynski argues, where entrepreneurial developers are shaping the twenty-first-century city with mixed-use developments, downtown living, heterogeneity, density, and liveliness. He introduces readers to projects like Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Yards in Washington, D.C., and, further afield, to the new city of Modi in, Israel sites that, in this age of resource scarcity, economic turmoil, and changing human demands, challenge our notion of the city. \u003cbr\u003eErudite and immensely engaging, Makeshift Metropolis is an affirmation of Rybczynski s role as one of our most original thinkers on the way we live today.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50241205895441,"sku":"CIN1416561269VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50374405161233,"sku":"CIN1416561269A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51024764207377,"sku":"NIN9781416561262","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51397509611793,"sku":"GOR009851948","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53002030711057,"sku":"CIN1416561269G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1416561269.jpg?v=1750890373"},{"product_id":"my-two-polish-grandfathers-book-witold-rybczynski-9780743235983","title":"My Two Polish Grandfathers","description":"Synopsis coming soon.......","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50245470814481,"sku":"CIN0743235983G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50262497067281,"sku":"CIN0743235983VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743235983.jpg?v=1751361116"},{"product_id":"rybczynski-witold-special-places-book-witold-rybczynski-9780670844210","title":"Rybczynski Witold : Special Places","description":"From the opening sentences of his first book on architecture, \u003cb\u003eHome\u003c\/b\u003e, Witold Rybczynski seduced readers into a new appreciation of the spaces they live in. He also introduced us to an unerringly lucid writer who knows how to translate architectural ideas into layman's terms (\u003cb\u003eThe Dallas Morning News\u003c\/b\u003e). Rybczynski's vast knowledge, his sense of wonder, and his elegantly uncluttered prose shine on every page of his latest meditation on the art of building. \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLooking Around\u003c\/b\u003e is about architecture as an art of compromise\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003ebetween beauty and function, aspiration and engineering, builders and clients. It is the story of the Seagram Building in New York and the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts in Columbus, Ohio\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003ea museum that opened without a single painting on view, so that critics could better appreciate its design. But what of the visitors who want a building that displays art well? What of those who work in the building? \u003cb\u003eLooking Around\u003c\/b\u003e explores the notion of the architect as superstar and assesses giants from Palladio to Michael Graves, styles from classicism to high tech. It demonstrates how architecture actually works\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003eor doesn't\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003ein corporate headquarters, airports, private homes, and the special buildings designed to represent our civilization. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor all its erudition, \u003cb\u003eLooking Around\u003c\/b\u003e is also bracingly straightforward. Rybczynski looks closely and critically at structures that may once have dazzled us with their ostentation and expense, and sees them as triumphs or failures\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003eof aesthetic ideals and of lasting function. This is a fascinating and illuminating book about an art form integral to our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50309913346321,"sku":"CIN0670844217A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50358488203537,"sku":"CIN0670844217VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52774116884753,"sku":"CIN0670844217G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52816411328785,"sku":"GOR006365819","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0670844217.jpg?v=1750784387"},{"product_id":"taming-the-tiger-book-witold-rybczynski-9780140075649","title":"Taming the Tiger","description":"THE PROBLEM OF CONTROLLING TECHNOLOGY HAS PREOCCUPIED US SINCE THE TIME OF THE FIRST FOREST FIRE CAUSED BY MAN, BUT TODAY, IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY, THE INTRODUCTION AND EVOLUTION OF MACHINES ARE OF INCREASING CONCERN. UNINTENDED SIDE EFFECTS HAVE ALWAYS ACCOMPANIED TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION, AND AS ADVANCES THAT MAY HAVE FAR REACHING CONSEQUENCES OCCUR IN PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING, WE FEEL AGAIN THE NEED TO DEFINE OUR UNEASY RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR INVENTIONS. WITOLD RYBCZYNSKI PROVOCATIVE BOOK HELPS US TO DO SO BY EXAMINING THE ATTEMPTS OF OUR PREDECESSORS TO COME TO TERMS WITH THE SHOCK OF THE MACHINE.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50345223029009,"sku":"CIN014007564XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/014007564X.jpg?v=1750876373"},{"product_id":"makeshift-metropolis-book-witold-rybczynski-9781416561255","title":"Makeshift Metropolis","description":"In this new work, prizewinning author, professor, and Slate architecture critic Witold Rybczynski returns to the territory he knows best: writing about the way people live, just as he did in the acclaimed bestsellers Home and A Clearing in the Distance. In Makeshift Metropolis, Rybczynski has drawn upon a lifetime of observing cities to craft a concise and insightful book that is at once an intellectual history and a masterful critique. \u003cbr\u003eMakeshift Metropolis describes how current ideas about urban planning evolved from the movements that defined the twentieth century, such as City Beautiful, the Garden City, and the seminal ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright and Jane Jacobs. If the twentieth century was the age of planning, we now find ourselves in the age of the market, Rybczynski argues, where entrepreneurial developers are shaping the twenty-first-century city with mixed-use developments, downtown living, heterogeneity, density, and liveliness. He introduces readers to projects like Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Yards in Washington, D.C., and, further afield, to the new city of Modi in, Israel sites that, in this age of resource scarcity, economic turmoil, and changing human demands, challenge our notion of the city. \u003cbr\u003eErudite and immensely engaging, Makeshift Metropolis is an affirmation of Rybczynski s role as one of our most original thinkers on the way we live today.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50374403948817,"sku":"CIN1416561250G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51330661024017,"sku":"CIN1416561250VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1416561250.jpg?v=1750794783"},{"product_id":"mysteries-of-the-mall-book-witold-rybczynski-9780374269937","title":"Mysteries of the Mall","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA deep exploration of modern life that examines our cities, public places, and homes\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn\u0026gt;\u003ci\u003eMysteries of the Mall\u003c\/i\u003e, Witold Rybczynski, the author of\u0026gt;\u003ci\u003eHow Architecture Works\u003c\/i\u003e, casts a seasoned critical eye on the modern scene. His subject is nothing less than the broad setting of our metropolitan world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn thirty-four discerning essays, Rybczynski ranges over topics as varied as shopping malls, Central Park, the Op ra Bastille, and America's shrinking cities. Along the way, he examines our post-9\/11 obsession with security, the revival of the big-city library, the rise of college towns, our fascination with vacation homes, and Disney's planned community of Celebration. By looking at contemporary architects as diverse as Frank Gehry, Moshe Safdie, and Bing Thom, revisiting old masters such as Palladio, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and considering such unsung innovators as Stanley H. Durwood, the inventor of the cineplex, Rybczynski ponders the role of global metropolises in an age of tourism and reflects on what kinds of places attract us in the modern city.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMysteries of the Mall\u003c\/i\u003e is required reading for anyone curious about the contemporary world and how it came to be the way it is.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50683615478033,"sku":"GOR009549523","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415731437841,"sku":"CIN0374269939G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52459627577617,"sku":"CIN0374269939VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374269939.jpg?v=1751455280"},{"product_id":"one-good-turn-book-witold-rybczynski-9780002000314","title":"One Good Turn","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe Best Tool of the Millennium\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The seeds of Rybczynski's elegant and illuminating new book were sown by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, \u003c\/i\u003e whose editors asked him to write an essay identifying the best tool of the millennium. The award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eHome\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Clearing in the Distance\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eNow I Sit Me Down\u003c\/i\u003e, Rybczynski once built a house using only hand tools. His intimate knowledge of the toolbox -- both its contents and its history -- serves him beautifully on his quest. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eOne Good Turn\u003c\/i\u003e is a story starring Archimedes, who invented the water screw and introduced the helix, and Leonardo, who sketched a machine for carving wood screws. It is a story of mechanical discovery and genius that takes readers from ancient Greece to car design in the age of American industry. Rybczynski writes an ode to the screw, without which there would be no telescope, no microscope -- in short, no enlightenment science. One of our finest cultural and architectural historians, Rybczynski renders a graceful, original, and engaging portrait of the tool that changed the course of civilization.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50784134725905,"sku":"CIN0002000318VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51333336989969,"sku":"CIN0002000318G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0002000318.jpg?v=1751099665"},{"product_id":"driving-machine-book-witold-rybczynski-9781324075288","title":"The Driving Machine","description":"In this lively and entertaining work, Witold Rybczynski—hailed as “one of the best writers on design working today” by Publishers Weekly—tells the story of the most distinctive cars in history and the artists, engineers, dreamers, and gearheads who created them. Delving into more than 170 years of ingenuity in design, technology, and engineering, he takes us from Carl Benz’s three-wheel motorcar in 1855 to the present-day shift to electric cars. Along the way, he looks at the emergence of mass production with Henry Ford’s Model T; the Golden Age of American car design and the rise of car culture; postwar European subcompacts typified by the Mini Cooper; and the long tradition of the streamlined and elegant sports car.   Rybczynski explores how cars have been reflections of national character (the charming Italian Fiat Cinquecento), icons of a subculture (the VW bus for American hippies), and even emblems of an era (the practical Chrysler minivan). He explains key developments in automotive technology, including the electric starter, rack-and-pinion steering, and disc brakes, bringing to light how the modern automobile is the result of more than a century of trial and error. And he weaves in charming accounts of the many cars he’s owned and driven, starting with his first—the iconic Volkswagen Beetle.   The Driving Machine is a breezy and fascinating history of design, illustrated with the author’s delightful drawings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50809786466577,"sku":"CIN1324075287G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51022926151953,"sku":"NIN9781324075288","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51075937566993,"sku":"NGR9781324075288","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51129959022865,"sku":"GOR014181904","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51155856032017,"sku":"CIN1324075287VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51251668287761,"sku":"GOR014208226","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":52996176183569,"sku":"CIN1324075287LN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1324075287.jpg?v=1750856636"},{"product_id":"paper-heroes-book-witold-rybczynski-9780140153750","title":"Paper Heroes","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50823015923985,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50823018053905,"sku":"CIN0140153756VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51693631504657,"sku":"CIN0140153756G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0140153756.jpg?v=1750811595"},{"product_id":"charleston-fancy-book-witold-rybczynski-9780300229073","title":"Charleston Fancy","description":"A captivating chronicle of building in modern-day Charleston, making a case for architecture based on historical precedent, local context, and the ability to delight   Charleston, South Carolina, which boasts America’s first historic district, is known for its palmetto-lined streets and picturesque houses. The Holy City, named for its profusion of churches, exudes an irresistible charm. Award-winning author and cultural critic Witold Rybczynski unfolds a series of stories about a group of youthful architects, builders, and developers based in Charleston: a self-taught home builder, an Air Force pilot, a fledgling architect, and a bluegrass mandolin player.   Beginning in the 1980s, this cast of characters, exercising a kind of amateur mastery, produced an eclectic array of buildings inspired by the past—including a domed Byzantine drawing room, a fanciful medieval castle, a restored freedman’s cottage, a miniature Palladian villa, and a contemporary Mediterranean street. In his careful profiles of these protagonists and the challenges they have overcome in realizing their dreams, Rybczynski compellingly emphasizes the importance of architecture and urban design on a local level, how an old city can remake itself by invention as well as replication, and the role that individuals still play in transforming the urban landscapes around them.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50951071105297,"sku":"CIN0300229070VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51686647890193,"sku":"CIN0300229070G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300229070.jpg?v=1750876564"},{"product_id":"charleston-fancy-book-witold-rybczynski-9780300256963","title":"Charleston Fancy","description":"A captivating chronicle of building in modern-day Charleston, making a case for architecture based on historical precedent, local context, and the ability to delight\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Charleston, South Carolina, which boasts America's first historic district, is known for its palmetto-lined streets and picturesque houses. The Holy City, named for its profusion of churches, exudes an irresistible charm. Award-winning author and cultural critic Witold Rybczynski unfolds a series of stories about a group of youthful architects, builders, and developers based in Charleston: a self-taught home builder, an Air Force pilot, a fledgling architect, and a bluegrass mandolin player.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Beginning in the 1980s, this cast of characters, exercising a kind of amateur mastery, produced an eclectic array of buildings inspired by the past--including a domed Byzantine drawing room, a fanciful medieval castle, a restored freedman's cottage, a miniature Palladian villa, and a contemporary Mediterranean street. In his careful profiles of these protagonists and the challenges they have overcome in realizing their dreams, Rybczynski compellingly emphasizes the importance of architecture and urban design on a local level, how an old city can remake itself by invention as well as replication, and the role that individuals still play in transforming the urban landscapes around them.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51000709939473,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51000711053585,"sku":"NIN9780300256963","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51780692214033,"sku":"CIN0300256965VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300256965.jpg?v=1750780446"},{"product_id":"mysteries-of-the-mall-book-witold-rybczynski-9780374538095","title":"Mysteries of the Mall","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA deep exploration of modern life that examines our cities, public places, and homes\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eMysteries of the Mall\u003c\/i\u003e, Witold Rybczynski, the author of \u003ci\u003eHow Architecture Works\u003c\/i\u003e, casts a seasoned critical eye on the modern scene. His subject is nothing less than the broad setting of our metropolitan world.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In thirty-four discerning essays, Rybczynski ranges over topics as varied as shopping malls, Central Park, the Opéra Bastille, and America's shrinking cities. Along the way, he examines our post-9\/11 obsession with security, the revival of the big-city library, the rise of college towns, our fascination with vacation homes, and Disney's planned community of Celebration. By looking at contemporary architects as diverse as Frank Gehry, Moshe Safdie, and Bing Thom, revisiting old masters such as Palladio, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and considering such unsung innovators as Stanley H. Durwood, the inventor of the cineplex, Rybczynski ponders the role of global metropolises in an age of tourism and reflects on what kinds of places attract us in the modern city.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMysteries of the Mall\u003c\/i\u003e is required reading for anyone curious about the contemporary world and how it came to be the way it is.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51001894994193,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51001897386257,"sku":"NIN9780374538095","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374538093.jpg?v=1751292284"},{"product_id":"taming-the-tiger-book-witold-rybczynski-9780670693597","title":"Taming the Tiger","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51323853570321,"sku":"CIN0670693596G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0670693596.jpg?v=1751294848"},{"product_id":"driving-machine-book-witold-rybczynski-9781324123514","title":"The Driving Machine","description":"In this lively and entertaining work, Witold Rybczynski tells the story of the most distinctive cars in history and the artists, engineers, dreamers and gearheads who created them. Delving into more than 170 years of ingenuity in design, technology and engineering, he takes us from Carl Benz’s three-wheel motorcar in 1855 to the present-day shift to electric cars. Along the way, he looks at the emergence of mass production with Henry Ford’s Model T; the Golden Age of American car design; postwar European subcompacts; and the long tradition of the elegant sports car.   Rybczynski explores how cars have been reflections of national character (the charming Italian Fiat Cinquecento), icons of a subculture (the VW bus for American hippies) and even emblems of an era (the practical Chrysler minivan). He explains key developments in automotive technology, bringing to light how the modern automobile is the result of more than a century of trial and error. And he weaves in charming accounts of the many cars he’s owned and driven, starting with his first—a Volkswagen Beetle.   The Driving Machine is a breezy and fascinating history of design, illustrated with the author’s delightful drawings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51846966575377,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51846966837521,"sku":"NGR9781324123514","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53119700500753,"sku":"NIN9781324123514","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781324123514.jpg?v=1765448334"},{"product_id":"what-architecture-is-book-witold-rybczynski-9780300292954","title":"What Architecture Is","description":"Witty, personal, and engaging, this cri de coeur from an esteemed critic takes on the age-old question of what elevates a mere building into an art form  What is it about architecture that distinguishes it from ordinary building? Frustrated with the many cookie-cutter buildings going up around his home in downtown Philadelphia, eminent architectural historian and critic Witold Rybczynski offers an immersive meditation on the question in this extended essay, an insightful and opinionated reflection on the essential qualities of architecture both historical and modern.  The book’s structure pays homage to John Ruskin’s treatise The Seven Lamps of Architecture; here, Rybczynski identifies his own guideposts: past, an awareness of ancient and modern architectural heritage; order, what emerges out of a careful plan; ornament, the addition of decorative elements; meaning, how buildings speak; beauty, or aesthetics; drawing, as a means to the end; and place, in the sense of both how place influences a structure and how architects create a sense of place. Rybczynski addresses the complicated question of what architecture is through compelling compositions on renowned buildings and designs—Hadrian’s Arch, the Eiffel Tower, the Barcelona Pavilion—alongside examinations of lesser-known structures and charming anecdotes. The book is enlivened by fifty of the author’s black-and-white drawings, adding another personal touch to this captivating book.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53060612194577,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53060612260113,"sku":"NGR9780300292954","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780300292954.jpg?v=1777630397"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/de-de\/collections\/autor-buecher-von-witold-rybczynski.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}