Background
Andrew Ballantyne was born on August 26, 1956.
Andrew Ballantyne was born on August 26, 1956.
Andrew Ballantyne was awarded a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Arts, and Ph.D. degrees. He also holds a diploma in architecture.
British educator Andrew Ballantyne has written and edited several books on architecture, including Architecture, Landscape, and Liberty: Richard Payne Knight and the Picturesque. In this book, Ballantyne profiles the accomplishments of Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824), an eccentric and wealthy English gentleman who pursued diverse scholarly interests. Knight designed his own home, Downton Castle, which broke with architectural tradition in its asymmetrical design. Knight’s tastes were influenced by his admiration of ancient Greece, and he did not mind challenging popular trends and ideas. Ballantyne sifts through Knight’s ideas and writings, which include the long poem “The Landscape," the prose work Principles of Taste, and a study of phallic worship, The Worship of Priapus.
In Architectural Review David Watkin called the book a “brilliant study, which should be read by all students of the Enlightenment." Watkin also noted that Ballantyne “convincingly reconciles the passionate paradoxes in Knight’s intellectual career." According to Kerry Downes in the Times Literary Supplement. “Ballantyne argues that Knight s misfortune was never to manage to convey to the public his highly unconventional but consistent and complete world view." Downes suggested that “For those without the leisure or the stomach for Knight’s own writings, this book is a boon. It is long, and losing one's place or one’s thread is easy enough. But it brings its subject vividly to life in ways not open to the best of painters."
What Is Architecture? is a collection of essays edited by Ballantyne. including his own work, “The Nest and the Pillar of Fire." In this introductory essay, Ballantyne discusses how architecture is comprised of both the mundane and the extraordinary. Other contributors to the book include Robert Scruton, Demetri Porphyrios. Neil Leach, and David Goldblatt. Times Literary Supplement critic Robert Maxwell concluded, “the big question about how free an art architecture really is remaining open, but Ballantyne has made an impressive assault on the initial uncertainties."
Reviewing Architecture: A Very Short Introduction for the Times Literary Supplement. Maxwell he described that book as “treating [architecture] as a subject open to culture, and definable only within the culture." Rather than discussing or defining architectural styles, in this volume, Ballantyne identifies the qualities that give buildings emotional and artistic impact.
Andrew Ballantyne currently works at the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape, Newcastle University as a professor of architecture. Andrew does research in Ethics, Metaphysics, and Aesthetics. Their current project is "Deleuze." Also taught at universities of Sheffield and Bath, and previously worked as a practicing architect.
Andrew Ballantyne has been the Chairman of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain and has written extensively on architectural history and theory, including Tudoresque: In Pursuit of the Ideal Home (2011), and the bestselling Architecture: A Very Short Introduction (2002). The last book named was translated into 23 languages including Chinese, Greek, and Hungarian.
(Do animals have rights? Do human beings have obligations ...)
2013(Investigating various ways in which the cultures of the t...)
2009(In this book, Andrew Ballantyne rescues Ruskin from the d...)
2015(With its distinctive gables and arches, Tudor-style archi...)
2011Andrew Ballantyne is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
