Building Theories Architecture as the Art of Building BaseesRoutledge on Russian and East European Studies

Building Theories speaks to the value of words in architecture.It addresses the author’s fascination with the voices of architects, engineers, builders, and craftspeople whose ideas about building have been captured in text.It discusses the content of treatises, essays, articles, and letters by those who have been, throughout history, committed to the art of building.In this, Building Theories argues for the return of a practice of architectural theory that is set amongst building, buildings, and builders.This journey of close reading reinterprets the words of Vitruvius, Alberti, de L’Orme, Le Camus de Mézières, Boullée, Laugier, Rondelet, Semper, Viollet-le-Duc, Hübsch, Bötticher, Berlage, Muthesius, Wagner, Behrendt, Gropius, and Arup.With chapters dedicated to texts from antiquity, the Renaissance, and the nineteenth century, and with a critical eye on architectural theory popularized in the Anglo-Saxon world post-1968, readers are introduced to a wider, more inclusive definition of