Architectonic Space – Fifteen Lessons on the Disposition of the Human Habitat (E.J. Brill, 1983) by Dom Hans Van der Laan is an insightful, and widely acclaimed theoretical study of the fundamentals of architecture.
This book deals with the fundamentals of Architecture. It aims to introduce, via two separate approaches, what might be called ‘the natural art of building’.
Van der Laan goes far back – indeed to the pre-architectural, rudimentary spatial experience, the interpretative activity of the perceiver of natural things, from which he then derives indications for the productive activity of the maker of artefacts, the architect. Upon this sure foundation he erects an impressive structure of thought, composed of carefully-bonded units which he calls ‘lessons’ (and which are in fact presented as such).
If one considers that Van der Laan initiated an completed his life’s work during a half-century of monastic seclusion, one is struck by its total lack of any metaphysical premise regarding the ‘fabric of Creation’. He limits himself to registering universal human reactions to the perception of that reaction – that is, of our inner and outer world. From these he derives indications for our accommodation to it by building.
– S.J. van Embden in his Foreword to Architectonic Space – Fifteen Lessons on the Disposition of the Human Habitat (E.J. Brill, 1983) by Dom Hans Van der Laan.
The text is in English. The book is illustrated with some drawings to exemplify Van der Laan’s ideas.
Our copy in stock is in very good condition. The pages are clean, except for a couple of pencil markings and a pencil inscription on the first flyleaf. The binding is fine. The covers show only some minor signs of shelf wear and use. No dust jacket.