in A personal history of European architecture (from the Greek temple to the Bauhaus)Taking as his guide the wise hypothesis of the humanist, architect, and Renaissance theorist Leon Battista Alberti, author of About constructionprinted in 1485: “We write not only for specialists, but for people interested in noble subjects, and it is advisable to intersperse entertainment from time to time.”
In this way, Ferrer charts a visionary blueprint that moves from the Greek temple to the modern movement of the twentieth century. It is not a book of pure architectural criticism. On the contrary, it is a celebration of constructive efforts, of the development of the ideal of beauty, of the trends and styles that have characterized history. Since architecture demands understanding of our existence, Ferrer offers a well-illustrated and stimulating overview of European architecture from antiquity to the avant-garde, inviting us to see and read cities, materials, architects, and, above all, buildings and the use the people made of them, the true recipients of architecture.
From the cultural transformations of Athens to the sanatorium of Alvar Aalto Paimio, we travel with increasing interest across European geography through the buildings and styles that defined our way of living and observing.
Thus, we begin with the Greeks, who considered man to be the center of everything and poured their artistic potential into the temples that took them as a reference for their perfection that linked order and proportion. The public life of the polis also required long naves enclosed by wooden roofs called thiseasWhich soon hosted meetings of the famous philosophers whom we call today the Stoics. Figures such as Phidias gave extraordinary beauty to sculpture, which played an essential role in architecture.
The Hellenistic Age (after Alexander the Great) gave rise to the first planned cities and the improvement of private homes. The Romans, who were more organized than intellectuals, gave a finishing touch to land communications, imitating the Greeks and turning Rome into a true imperial capital based on large public buildings conceived as monuments of art. There is the Pantheon, the perfection of the dome, and the magnificent skylight that illuminates the temple revered by Le Corbusier. Symmetry was the Roman way of seeing the world. During the reign of Augustus, Marcus Vitruvius published a manual that was miraculously preserved: architecture, A text that had a decisive influence on European architecture. he Panem and circles Juvenal spoke about the spaces promoting the show: There is the Colosseum.
The chapters devoted to Christian architecture are fascinating, and whose communal celebrations require the creation of so-called meeting houses Church housewhich would be derived Churchthe church, which would spread without stopping. Of all the Byzantine churches, none can compare with Hagia Sophia. The poet Pablo Silenciario defined its dome as “the sky that rests on the air.” The pedagogical nature of the essay spread throughout Europe to monastic orders, when groups such as that of Cluny built monasteries to implement ora et labora, where the cloisters and cross-cells were improved. Then will come the fever of building medieval cities, which will lead to the emergence of European cathedrals.
In the fourteenth century, the heritage of Rome was reborn in Florence: human eyes reclaimed the glories of antiquity. Brunelleschi arrived to create a modern interpretation of Romanesque architecture in the church of Santa Croce with its eternal dome. Renaissance architecture found names like Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci, and then Michelangelo, who would give it an irrevocable direction.
Ferrer says that Gothic architecture survived largely because of the influence of literature on society: the Gothic novel, based on stories of medieval castles with passages and ghosts, was very popular. Oscar Wilde wrote Canterville GhostThe historical novel was created by Walter Scott, and Victor Hugo published it in 1831 Lady Parisand its main character – Notre Dame – is the Gothic Paris Cathedral, which is described as “a monumental work of the people.”
Against the Industrial Revolution, William Morris founded the Arts and Crafts movement, betting on a return to craftsmanship, a precursor to Art Nouveau and the subsequent Vienna School, with its brilliant decoration by Adolf Loos. The modern Germany of the Bauhaus, represented by the Gropius Building (the landmark) in Dessau – the temple of rationalism and functionalism – would open irreversible paths for architects such as Mies van der Rohe (the artist and teacher).
We are presented with a lively and not overly intellectual read, which does not fail to celebrate knowledge in any of its chapters, and is read with the passion one would attend an art history class in high school and university. David Ferrer reminds us that architecture, more than just a matter of technology, is a mirror of what we dream of being. It invites us to listen to the sounds of stone, marble and steel that have tried over the centuries to tell us who we are. This is perhaps the most humane construction.
A personal history of European architecture
David Ferrer
Tusquets, 2025
400 pages, 22 euros