Edward Hollis’ The Secret Lives of Buildings: From the Ruins of the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories has an interesting premise which Hollis largely exploits. He examines the active life of buildings, from their conception, construction, use, decay and re-use.
The Parthenon is the model Hollis uses in all his other examples. This icon of western architecture is contextualized by Hollis, shown to be mutable and unstable and is contrasted to the imperfect life of other well-known buildings.
Sometimes Hollis stretches connections between his essays, or stories, as he calls them. They appear to be independent entities, and he fiddled around to make them connect. But overall this does not hamper the effectiveness of this work. Informative, entertaining, interesting… Hollis has produced an unique book about our built/physical environments.
The Parthenon is the model Hollis uses in all his other examples. This icon of western architecture is contextualized by Hollis, shown to be mutable and unstable and is contrasted to the imperfect life of other well-known buildings.
Sometimes Hollis stretches connections between his essays, or stories, as he calls them. They appear to be independent entities, and he fiddled around to make them connect. But overall this does not hamper the effectiveness of this work. Informative, entertaining, interesting… Hollis has produced an unique book about our built/physical environments.
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