The Beehive Metaphor
From Gaudi to Le Corbusier
Published on 1. April 2000
Book
Paperback/Softback
176 pages
978-1-86189-056-6 (ISBN)
Description
Since time immemorial, bees have been associated with all manner of virtues. The beehive has served as the model for an ideal society, while honey and wax have provided the basis for countless positive metaphors of sweetness and productivity. The natural architecture created by bees in their hives can be said to approach perfection. In The Beehive Metaphor, Juan Antonio Rami-rez shows how this lucid modular structure had a considerable influence on the architects and artists who founded the Modern movement. Models from both traditional and 'modern' or 'rational' apiculture were studied and reinterpreted by such key figures as Gaudi-, Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Beuys.
Inspired by his own father's obsession with bee-keeping - which wiped out the family's fortune - Ramirez examines the complex ideological, political and artistic repercussions of apian metaphors, thereby enhancing our understanding of the relationship between ecology, animal husbandry and architecture.
Inspired by his own father's obsession with bee-keeping - which wiped out the family's fortune - Ramirez examines the complex ideological, political and artistic repercussions of apian metaphors, thereby enhancing our understanding of the relationship between ecology, animal husbandry and architecture.
Reviews / Votes
An evocative work, full of detailed observation, which no one else could have written, or would have thought to write * <i>Times Literary Supplement</i> * This is a charming book . . . Academics are often eccentric and sometimes they are enthusiastic. Rami-rez is both . . . It is a timely contribution to contemporary thought concerning art and architecture. The beehive metaphor may well be due for revival * <i>The Architects</i><i></i><i> Journal</i> * On one hand, the fascination is with the truth uncovered, and here Ramirez has certainly added one more, unique truth to the panoply of truths in architectural history. On the other, the fascination is with the paranoid will itself, with following the author's tenacious, single-minded pursuit of a solitary theme, worrying it like a terrier with its prey...The Beehive Metaphor had me hooked * Ian Borden, Director of Architectural History and Theory at The Bartlett, University College London *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
179 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-86189-056-6 (9781861890566)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Juan Antonio Ramirez is Professor of History of Art at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and the author of several books on art, architecture and film, including Duchamp: Love and Death, even (Reaktion, 1998).