World Architecture: The Masterworks is Will Pryce's specially photographed survey of eighty buildings spanning more than two thousand years of civilisation, presenting each structure through the lens of an architect-turned-photographer with rare technical and aesthetic command.
About This Book
This is not a catalogue of famous buildings but a sustained argument for architecture as the highest expression of human ingenuity. Pryce selects eighty structures — from Hagia Sophia and the Gothic cathedrals of Europe to the Taj Mahal, the Palace of Westminster, and Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao — and photographs them with the eye of someone who understands how buildings are made. More than forty receive extended photo essays with accompanying critical commentary, tracing not just the buildings themselves but the cultural and historical conditions that produced them. For architects, historians, and serious design enthusiasts, this is a visual and intellectual history of architecture at its most ambitious.
Key Features
- 320 pages of specially commissioned colour photography, with over 350 images across eighty architectural masterworks
- Photographs and texts by Will Pryce
- Notable buildings include Hagia Sophia, the Gothic cathedrals of Europe, Islamic masterworks at Isfahan, the Taj Mahal, the Palace of Westminster, and Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
- Published by Thames & Hudson
What You'll Discover
- How architectural form has evolved across more than two millennia, traced through buildings selected for their historical and spatial significance
- The structural and aesthetic logic behind individual masterworks, examined in extended photo essays for more than forty buildings
- The cultural and historical contexts in which these buildings were commissioned and constructed, illuminated through Pryce's critical commentaries
- The value of architectural training in photographic practice — Pryce's Cambridge and Royal College of Art background shapes how each building is framed and understood
About the Author
Will Pryce is an award-winning photographer who originally trained as an architect at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Art, London. His books include Big Shed and, with James W. P. Campbell, the widely acclaimed Brick: A World History.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 320
- Dimensions: 234 x 297 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780500342749
- Publisher: Thames & Hudson
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects, architectural historians, and design enthusiasts seeking a photographically and intellectually authoritative survey of world architecture across the ages.