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Alexander Tzonis is Professor Emeritus at the University of Technology Delft. He was educated at Yale University and taught at Harvard University between 1967 and 1981, at the College de France and Tsinghua University. Among his publications, The Shape of Community (Penguin, 1972) with Serge vis mere Chermayeff, Towards a Non-oppressive Environment, (1972). Liane Letaivre is Professor Ordinaria (retired) at the University of Applied Art in Vienna. Among her books are Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (MIT Press, 1996) and The Child, the City and Power of Play (Tsinghua University, Beijing, 2010). Among the books Lefaivre and Tzonis authored together are Classical Architecture (1986), Emergence of Modern Architecture (Routledge 2004), and Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization, Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World, (Routledge, 2011). vis mindre

Omfatter også følgende navne: A. Tzonis, Alex Tzonis

Værker af Alexander Tzonis

Santiago Calatrava: Complete Works (2004) 70 eksemplarer

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Juridisk navn
Tzonis, Alexander
Fødselsdato
1937-11-08
Køn
male
Nationalitet
Griekenland
Land (til kort)
Netherlands
Fødested
Athene, Griekenland
Uddannelse
Yale University
Erhverv
hoogleraar
Organisationer
Harvard University
Technische Universiteit Delft

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Calatrava is perhaps the best-known structural engineer in the world, and it's as much for his bridges as any of his other work. This can only be a good thing for a public who would otherwise think that bridge engineers stopped at Brunel (or Eiffel, or Roebling, depending on your country of origin).

Despite his work's public popularity, Calatrava is frequently criticised within the engineering community. Matthew Wells in "30 Bridges" describes how many of Calatrava's bridges are "rather like a cake on a cake-stand", with some of them "overblown". What engineers so dislike is that Calatrava abandons the discipline of economy in favour of the irrational and the exuberant - bridges which succeed primarily as sculptures rather than as rational structures.

Alexander Tzonis has written extensively on Calatrava but unfortunately lacks a critical eye. The dozens of bridges included in this book are all described positively, although some are downright ugly (e.g. the fortunately unbuilt Serreria Bridge) and others interesting but seriously flawed (e.g. California's Sundial Bridge). His text is often unclear, frequently failing to distinguish between bridges that were built and others that never got beyond the model-making stage, and it's often obvious that English is his second language.

That said, I still found the book consistently fascinating, and it's well-illustrated. The initial chapter on his Alpine bridge designs (all very different from the high-tech steelwork of his better-known work) is very welcome, and there are plenty of structures which I hadn't previously encountered. As a bridge designer, there are several ideas to follow up, and it's unsurprising that Calatrava has inspired many imitators.

In summary, Calatrava fans will love this book. Others with a keen interest in bridge design will also find plenty to admire (or react against), but may wish it was somewhat less of a hagiography.
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bduguid | Jan 2, 2007 |

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Værker
26
Medlemmer
509
Popularitet
#48,721
Vurdering
½ 3.6
Anmeldelser
1
ISBN
55
Sprog
6

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