Where should I start my research?
Start your research with Reference Sources to get the background and build context. Next, explore some General Sources or work through Area/Regional sources to help answer any contextual questions you have.
Where can I find books in the library?
Print material can also be found at the library by browsing the shelves for books related to Architecture using the call number ranges below:
What are reference sources?
Reference sources include dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, handbooks, and other materials providing general information about various subjects. When you need the background on a topic, reference sources are the optimal source for who, what, when, where, and why questions.
Where can I find reference sources?
Search the library catalog or the reference section located on the Ground floor.
What if I'm off campus or not in the library?
Below are a selection of resources available through the Masland Library:
The A to Z of Architecture by
Architecture, which can be understood in its most basic sense as a form of enclosure created with an aesthetic intent, first made its appearance in the Prehistoric Age. From its earliest developments, architecture changed over time and in different cultures in response to changing cultural needs, aesthetic interests, materials, and techniques. The A to Z of Architecture provides information on architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Tadao Ando, Leon Battista Alberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, and Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov, as well as on famous structures like the Acropolis, the Colosseum, the Forbidden City, Machu Pichu, Notre Dame, the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, and the World Trade Center. The dictionary examines the development of architecture over the centuries through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on the major architects, well-known buildings, time periods, styles, building types, and materials in world architecture.
Dictionary Plus Art and Architecture
This dictionary comprises authoritative, highly accessible entries on artists, architects, and their works. These entries are supplementary to other art and architecture titles in the Quick Reference collection, and are written by specialist authors. The dictionary is an ongoing project, and more entries will be added over time.
The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture by
Covers all periods of western architectural history including biographies of architects and others who have made significant contributions to the field of architecture.
General Material about Art Architecture
General material relating to Art and Architecture can be found on the homepage of the Masland Library.
Searching a couple of keywords will help guide you in the right direction. Below are some sources we have available online.
For more results, try searching Art AND Architecture to see our holdings.
Why Architecture Matters by
Why Architecture Matters is not a work of architectural history or a guide to the styles or an architectural dictionary, though it contains elements of all three. The purpose of Why Architecture Matters is to “come to grips with how things feel to us when we stand before them, with how architecture affects us emotionally as well as intellectually”—with its impact on our lives. “Architecture begins to matter,” writes Paul Goldberger, “when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads.” He shows us how that works in examples ranging from a small Cape Cod cottage to the “vast, flowing” Prairie houses of Frank Lloyd Wright, from the Lincoln Memorial to the highly sculptural Guggenheim Bilbao and the Church of Sant'Ivo in Rome, where “simple geometries... create a work of architecture that embraces the deepest complexities of human imagination.”Based on decades of looking at buildings and thinking about how we experience them, the distinguished critic raises our awareness of fundamental things like proportion, scale, space, texture, materials, shapes, light, and memory. Upon completing this remarkable architectural journey, readers will enjoy a wonderfully rewarding new way of seeing and experiencing every aspect of the built world.
Architecture: a Historical Perspective by 
Religious Architecture by
Borrowing from a range of theories on spacemaking and material religion, and with contributions from anthropologists working in the United Kingdom, Mali, Brazil, Spain, and Italy, this fascinating and comprehensive study develops an anthropological perspective on modern religious architecture including mosques, churches, and synagogues. Religious Architecture examines how religious buildings take their place in opposition to their secular surroundings and, in so doing, function not only as community centers in urban daily life, but also as evocations of the sublime that help believers to move beyond the boundaries of modern subjectivity.