Page plan · 11 pages

Written for: Readers of long-form architecture writing and course students

1. 1

   Buildings in stone and light: eight plates

   • This catalogue presents eight public-domain buildings, one plate per work.
   • The works span the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
   • Each plate pairs a building with its architect and a short reading.
   • The tone is quiet: look first, then read.
2. 2

   Eight architects, eight plates: how to read this catalogue

   • Each plate names one architect and one building.
   • Read each plate in order: the image first, then the caption.
   • Look for how structure, material and light shape each interior or facade.
   • Compare plates against one another, not only in isolation.
   • The final page draws the eight works together.
3. 3

   Schinkel: the Altes Museum

   • Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed the Altes Museum in Berlin.
   • It is a neoclassical building with a long colonnade facing the Lustgarten.
   • Its central rotunda recalls the Pantheon in Rome.
   • It is a landmark of the museum as a public building type.
4. 4

   Labrouste: a reading room in iron

   • Henri Labrouste designed the reading room of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris.
   • Slender cast-iron columns carry a roof of shallow ceramic domes.
   • Iron is left visible as structure and as ornament.
   • Skylights bring daylight down to the readers' tables.
5. 5

   Paxton: a palace of glass

   • Joseph Paxton designed the Crystal Palace for the 1851 Great Exhibition in London.
   • It was built from prefabricated iron and glass modules.
   • Standardized parts allowed rapid assembly.
   • It showed how glass and iron could enclose vast, bright space.
6. 6

   Richardson: a library of stone

   • H. H. Richardson designed the Trinity Church and libraries in a Romanesque-inspired style; this plate shows a library in stone.
   • Heavy rusticated masonry and deep round arches give the work its weight.
   • Richardson's manner influenced American civic architecture of the later nineteenth century.
   • Stone here reads as mass rather than surface.
7. 7

   Otto Wagner: a savings bank hall

   • Otto Wagner designed the Austrian Postal Savings Bank in Vienna.
   • Its central hall has a glass roof and a glass-tiled floor.
   • Exposed metal fixings and slim supports are part of the look.
   • The hall is an early example of modern, functional banking space.
8. 8

   Horta: a house in curves

   • Victor Horta designed the Hôtel Tassel in Brussels, an early Art Nouveau house.
   • Curving iron tendrils run through the stair, rail and ceiling.
   • Structure and ornament merge into one flowing line.
   • Light enters through the stairwell to animate the interior.
9. 9

   Mackintosh: a school of art

   • Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed the Glasgow School of Art.
   • Its north facade pairs tall studio windows with austere stone.
   • Interiors mix straight geometry with delicate decorative detail.
   • The building is a key work between Arts and Crafts and modernism.
10. 10

    Berlage: a stock exchange in brick

    • H. P. Berlage designed the Beurs van Berlage, the Amsterdam stock exchange.
    • Brick is the main material, used honestly and with restraint.
    • A tall tower anchors the facade and marks the entrance.
    • The building points the way from historicism toward modern design.
11. 11

    What these eight buildings have in common

    • Each architect made material visible: stone, iron, glass or brick.
    • Light is shaped deliberately, often from above.
    • Many works give new form to public institutions: museums, libraries, banks, schools.
    • Structure and ornament increasingly became one.
    • Together, the plates show architecture moving toward modernity.