Title: Lettering in Architecture
Author: Alan Bartram
Publisher: 1975
Text by Alan Bartram; 176 pages, 300 black and white illustrations
This brilliant book is devoted entirely to exploring the typography as it is employed on the façades of buildings throughout Italy and Great Britain from Antiquity through Modernism. Though a seemingly marginal and obscure topic, when presented with the excellent examples provided in Lettering in Architecture in conjunction with the author’s compelling argument for the way in which letters and words, nearly as much as form, can indicate the history, function, and character of a structure.
Lettering in Architecture is partly a preservationist’s project. Published in 1975, the European Architectural Heritage Year, Bartram writes with a heightened consciousness that the buildings he profiles are in danger of being destroyed by new construction. This volume argues for the preservation of these lettered buildings, if only in text and photographs, that these lettered buildings should be sustained, but more importantly, that new letterforms should be developed for contemporary structures to strengthen the relationship between graphic art and architecture.
The text addresses both the concrete elements – materials, styles, and tools - of the letterforms, as well as the historical significance with which they mark their respective architectural spaces. As a fascinating, concentrated investigation of an element of daily experience completely taken for granted, readers will find this volume functions as a bridge spanning multiple disciplines and interest groups, ranging from designers of graphic media, architects, sculptors, conservationists, and students and enthusiasts of urban history.
