What to read after Understanding Architecture?

This widely acclaimed, beautifully illustrated survey of Western architecture is now fully revised throughout, including essays on non-Western traditions. The expanded book vividly examines the structure, function, history, and meaning of architecture in ways that are both accessible and engaging.

Significant features of the third edition include:

• Increased global coverage, with new essays on Africa, Japan, China, India, Islamic architecture, and the architecture of the Americas.


• A new chapter covering twenty-first century architecture.


• Updated coverage of sustainable and green architecture and its impact on design.


• Revised historical survey and expanded and illustrated timeline.


• Thoroughly revised and expanded art program, including more than 650 black and white images–135 new to this edition, and more than 200 line art drawings created by author Leland Roth. A new 32-page, full color insert features more than 50 new color images.

Understanding Architecture continues to be the only text in the field to examine architecture as a cultural phenomenon as well as an artistic and technological achievement with its straightforward, two-part structure: The Elements of Architecture and The History and Meaning of Architecture. Comprehensive and clearly written, Understanding Architecture is a classic survey of architecture.