Robert Harbison 1940-2021

摘要

Robert Harbison taught architectural history for more than 30 years, mainly at the Architectural Association and London Metropolitan University. He became a legendary figure for generations of students and his books earned him an international reputation as a historian and critic. Born in Baltimore, Bob moved to London and published his first architecture book in 1974; Eccentric Spaces applied a poetic sensibility to topics as diverse as gardens, maps, machines and ideal cities. It was Bernard Tschumi who, having read the book, invited him to lecture at the AA and thereby launched his teaching career. More architecture books followed, including Ruins and Fragments, Reflections on Baroque and The Built, the Unbuilt and the Unbuildable. Bob's early books benefited from the fact that his wife, Esther, was an editor. Thirteen Ways, first published in 1997, is typically unconventional. It borrows its title from a Wallace Stevens poem but refuses the obvious implication, consisting of only ten chapters. Bob was a voracious reader and his learning was profound but it was always the direct encounter that ignited his passion. He very rarely wrote about buildings he had not seen. His 2009 Travels in the History of Architecture is in one sense a traditional 'survey' with conventional chapter headings: Roman, Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, and so on. But it is also a travelogue, the record of a purposeful exploration of architecture over several decades.