Understanding Architecture is a comprehensive introduction to architecture and architectural history and exceptional in its approach. It explores architecture as a current practice in relation to its history and in relation to the wider context of cultures, conservation, planning and the environment. It introduces issues of urbanism, feminism and ethnicity, concerns which are at the forefront of current debates on architecture.

Its aim is to help people make sense of the experience of architecture and the built environment by understanding more about the form, construction, meaning and history of the subject. Lavishly illustrated, it will be of interest to students of architecture, architectural history, interior design, planning, leisure, and heritage and design. The full appendices include a glossary, suggestions for further reading and useful addresses.