Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

In a loosely configured essay, Rybczynski (Architecture, McGill Univ.) discusses the idea of comfort and the Western cultural attitudes that have shaped it since the end of the middle ages. Rather than dealing with the technical aspects of architecture, he reviews such cultural variables as intimacy and privacy, domesticity, ease, and ideas about light, air, and efficiency as they have changed over time. Essentially Rybczynski makes a plea for the primacy of cultural ideals as a basis for creating psychologically comfortable homes. Though he is selective in his history and examples, this is a worthwhile counterweight to the all-too-common technical practices of modern architects. Recommended. Jack Perry Brown, Ryerson & Burnham Libs., Art Inst. of Chicago (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

In this study of the evolution of domestic living, McGill University architecture professor Rybczynski traces the material and cultural influences that have helped shape our notions of comfort. PW recommended this ``intriguing'' book. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

A charming if occasionally irritating story of domestic interiors, from Medieval homes to Louis XIV's Versailles, from Queen Anne parlors to modern interiors by architects Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier. These interiors are shown-over time-as a reflection of each society's inner needs for privacy, intimacy, and, above all, comfort. Rybczynski cuts across class distinctions to add emphasis to the impact of these values. The broad scope and overview that frame the major part of the book are at the end forfeited for the sake of a fashionable polemic about architects, taste, and-not surprisingly-postmodernism. Rybczynski asks us to leave ``modernism's shallow enthusiasms'' and develop ``a deeper and more genuine understanding of domestic comfort.'' He adds a populist warning: ``Domestic well-being is too important to be left to experts....'' The book is well annotated and the author credits his sources thoroughly. Many of the works that he cites are more penetrating and scholarly than he is on certain aspects of his subject matter. However, he has produced a personal synthesis that is both witty and informative. Rybczynski (architecture, McGill) is also the author of Paper Heroes: A Review of Appropriate Technology (1980) and Taming the Tiger: The Struggle to Control Technology (1985). Recommended for undergraduate levels in architecture, interior design, and home economics.-B. Jacob, University of Minnesota

Kirkus Book Review

One man's lounge chair is another man's bed of nails, as McGill University architecture professor Rybczynski demonstrates in this elegant, witty study of how ideas about comfort in the home have evolved--or decayed, some might say--over the centuries. Rybczynski began his exploration of comfort when he discovered ""the fundamental poverty of modern architectural ideas"" while attempting to design his own home. Looking back over the centuries, he found that in the Middle Ages ""people didn't so much live in their houses as camp in them""; the idea of comfort was unknown. In northern Europe in the 17th century arose the concept of stimmung, a ""sense of intimacy that is created by a room and its furnishings."" This led to the development in Holland of the house as a snug, private enclave. The French then learned to differentiate rooms by function, and to adapt furniture to the human form. Comfort in the home reached its apex in Georgian England, with house interiors that were both sensible and beautiful. Unable to leave well enough alone, however, modernism spurned comfort in favor of minimalist austerity, a movement culminating in the celebrated--but acutely uncomfortable--Wassily chair. Rybczynski blasts modernism's ""shallow enthusiasms,"" its ""rupture in the evolution of domestic comfort,"" calling for a return to houses with more intimacy and privacy. This will appeal to everyone who has thrown out those dreadful butterfly chairs and tubular sofas in favor of good old lumpy couches. A warm, erudite book aglow with common sense. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.