How to start understanding architecture

The book was written based on the materials of the lecture cycle “Formulas of Culture”, read by the author in the Moscow Open Club (2012 - 2013) The reader will find in it basic information on the history of architecture and get acquainted with non -trivial facts. Here, architecture is considered in the context of other types of art - mainly painting and sculpture. Much attention is paid to the influence of architecture on a person, because any building takes on the task of organizing our living space, contributes to the formation of a sense of beautiful and instills ideas about orderliness, system, social and personal values, the principle of grouping of various elements, including social. What we see and perceive, affects our character, helps to determine what is good and what is bad. The layout and mutual arrangement of buildings in a symbolic form repeats the structure of society. In the Mumane House and people are ants, and in a luxurious mansion, a person feels like the Lord of the world. Being a visual event, the building becomes a formula for culture, a visible expression of its main meaning. An analysis of basic architectural concepts is conducted in the book on the material of the history of the art of the ancient world and Western Europe