Describes the different shapes you can find in buildings.

This shapes book with a difference features 12 buildings from around the world. Each spread is devoted to one shape - both two- and three-dimensional shapes eg circle, square, rectangle, cube, pyramid and cylinder. Each building is illustrated in full colour with the geometric shape reproduced again on the page. This inventive and intriguing approach not only reinforces the learning of everyday shapes, but will inspire children to appreciate some of the world's great buildings. Buildings featured are: The Pantheon, Rome, Italy/ Pont du Gard, Nimes, France/ St Peters Piazza, Rome, Italy/ Beinecke Library, Yale University, Connecticut, USA/ Imperial Villa of Katsura, Kyoto, Japan/ The Parthenon, Athens, Greece/ Masjid-in shah Mosque, Isfahan, Iran/ The Gherkin, London, UK/ The Ka'Ba, Mecca, Saudi Arabia /Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, UK/ Entrance to the Louvre Museum, Paris, France/ Hypostyle Hall, Temple of Amon, Karnak, Thebes, Egypt

Architecture and Ritual explores how the varied rituals of everyday life are framed and defined in space by the buildings which we inhabit. It penetrates beyond traditional assumptions about architectural style, aesthetics and utility to deal with something more implicit: how buildings shape and reflect our experience in ways of which we remain unconscious. Whether designed to house a grand ceremony or provide shelter for a daily meal, all buildings coordinate and consolidate social relations by giving orientation and focus to the spatial practices of those who use them. Peter Blundell Jones investigates these connections between the social and the spatial, providing critical insights into the capacity for architecture to structure human ritual, from the grand and formal to the mundane. This is achieved through deep readings of individual pieces of architecture, each with a detailed description of its particular social setting and use. The case studies are drawn from throughout architectural history and from around the globe, each enabling a distinct theoretical theme to emerge, and showing how social conventions vary with time and place, as well as what they have in common. Case studies range from the Nuremberg Rally to the Centre Pompidou, and from the Palace of Westminster to Dogon dwellings in Africa and a Modernist hospital. In considering how all architecture has to mesh with the habits, beliefs, rituals and expectations of the society that created it, the book presents deep implications for our understanding of architectural history and theory. It also highlights the importance for architects of understanding how buildings frame social space before they prescribe new architectural designs of their own. The book ends with a recent example of user participation, showing how contemporary user interest and commitment to a building can be as strong as ever.

Introduces shapes, including squares, triangles, circles, and rectangles, and presents images of buildings that employ these shapes in their architecture.

While piloting his spaceship through the skies, Captain Invincible encounters three-dimensional shapes, including cubes, cylinders, and pyramids.

An engaging introduction to buildings, with a deft mix of nonfiction and fiction elements.

Depicts various shapes that can be found in buildings, including triangles, squares, circles, and rectangles.