How perniciously do we judge people on the style of their home and landscaping? What beliefs about society can children pick up from public school design? And how might a desire for increased market share affect hospital design? Architecture is a forthcoming language, and just as she did in her now-canonical The Language of Clothes, Alison Lurie has written a probing primer to the vivid, infinitely subtle semiotics of the material world. Rather than a phrasebook to the jargon of architecture, The Language of Houses (Delphinium, $25.95) is a thorough but accessible exploration of all that buildings communicate, intentionally or unintentionally. Despite the title, the discussion is hardly confined to residences; hospitals and “Houses of God,” big box stores and mental institutions, restaurants and government monuments are all considered, revealing fascinating connections between the discipline of architecture and economics, religious belief, social dynamics, health, and civics. A Pulitzer-laureled novelist and critic, Lurie wears her learning lightly, and peppers the book with personal anecdotes and apt references to literature and its fictional buildings. Using this extended metaphor of language, she illustrates the variations of tone and diction, dialect and volume, depth of vocabulary and syntactical complexity, to which each and every structure is subject. Whether you’re ashamed that you don’t know more about architecture, or are perfectly fluent in its grammar, you’ll delight in this extended appreciation of its capacities.
