Western architecture

"The history of architecture is not just a matter of dates, architects and styles, but also the way buildings are experienced and the ideas that lie behind them. And architecture itself is both a utilitarian activity - people have to live, work and worship in buildings - and a visual art, as expressive and exciting as painting and sculpture. This book traces the way in which, over two and a half millennia, these two processes have (usually happily) co-existed. In a new, refreshingly readable telling of an old story the author shows how social and technological changes have conditioned the way…