Library Guides: ARCH 131s / ARCH 132s Basic Design Studio I &amp; II: Context & History

Find Context and History

Design encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries are great resources to use to find information on the cultural and historical context of your exemplar and the exemplar’s designer.

Sources

Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online combines several key encyclopedias and dictionaries important for the history of art and architecture. Together these provide the largest and most authoritative list of biographies of artists in English, as well as an excellent collection of scholarly encyclopedia articles on important topics in the visual arts. Included are Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and others.

Try this first. This huge electronic encyclopedia of art includes many biographies of artists, architects, and designers of all eras and cultures. It also includes information on selected individual buildings and concise – but comprehensive – articles on architectural history. Articles often contain links to illustrations.

Building Types Online
Documentation of about 850 recent building projects organized by building types (that is to say, the functional purpose of the building.) Typical results include a project description, drawings, and photographs. Essays discussing major types are also available. Especially strong in housing and it’s variations but also including libraries, museums, schools and industrial, office and sacred buildings.

A selection of recent buildings arranged by types. Choose “Schools and Kindergartens” to browse 132 examples, each with excellent photos and drawings.

Documentation of about 850 recent building projects organized by building types (that is to say, the functional purpose of the building.) Typical results include a project description, drawings, and photographs. Essays discussing major types are also available. Especially strong in housing and its variations but also including libraries, museums, schools and industrial, office and sacred buildings.

The Oxford Companion to Architecture by Patrick Goode (General Editor); Stanford Anderson (Consultant Editor); Colin St. John Wilson
eBook

Shorter bios and bibliographies, but convenient.

Encyclopedia of 20th Century Architecture by Sennott, R. Stephen
Substantial entries for all aspects of architecture. Articles include a list of further readings and a list of other relevant entries.

This resource includes information on:

architects and design firms (includes lists of buildings and writings by)
individual buildings
building types (e.g. hospitals, museums, pavilions)
architectural theory (e.g., deconstructivism, postmodernism)
architectural styles and movements (e.g. Structuralism, Modernism, Finnish Functionalism, New Urbanism)
construction techniques and materials (e.g. curtain-walls, stone, tensile structures, concrete)