The Eternal Present, Volume II: The Beginnings of Architecture

An original account of ancient Egyptian and Sumerian architecture from the acclaimed architectural historian

In The Beginnings of Architecture, Sigfried Giedion examines the architecture of ancient Egypt and Sumer. These early builders expressed an attitude of immense force when they confronted their structures with open sky. Giedion argues that it was during these periods that the problem of constancy and change flared up with an intensity unknown in any other period of history, and resolved eventually into the first architectural space conception, the automatic, psychic recording of the visual environment.

© 2023 Princeton University Press (Ebook): 9780691251899

Release date

Ebook: 17 October 2023