| Introduction | 10 |
| The Advent of Architecture Before 650 CE | |
| Sustaining life itself | 18 |
| Shelter | |
| The bond between heaven and earth | 20 |
| The ziggurat | |
| Greater than words can tell | 22 |
| The pyramid | |
| Proportion, strength, and beauty | 26 |
| The column | |
| Increasing the power of the voice | 34 |
| The theater | |
| Far and wide, stupas may rise | 36 |
| The stupa | |
| I broke the earth's veins | 37 |
| The Great Wall | |
| Two weaknesses combine to form one strength | 38 |
| The arch | |
| Building new houses, one after another | 42 |
| Dwellings | |
| The temple of the whole world | 46 |
| The dome | |
| A place for the people to gather | 48 |
| The basilica | |
| A tower that touched the moon | 50 |
| Early imperial China | |
| A golden dome suspended from heaven | 52 |
| Byzantine | |
| The Middle Ages 650-1420 | |
| The haven where man's spirit, soul, and body find refuge | 58 |
| Islamic inspiration | |
| The ornament of the world | 64 |
| Moorish architecture | |
| The oneness of humans with the land and sky | 66 |
| The pueblo | |
| The physical form of God | 68 |
| Indian temples | |
| The rebirth of golden Rome | 70 |
| Romanesque | |
| Monumental pillars in the stream of time | 72 |
| The castle | |
| Infinity made imaginable | 74 |
| Gothic | |
| Architecture without architects | 82 |
| Timber-frame building | |
| An act of piety | 86 |
| Southeast Asian temples | |
| From the rock as if by magic grown | 88 |
| Rock-cut buildings | |
| Heaven-sent material | 90 |
| Mud | |
| Civic life inscribed indelibly | 94 |
| Secular Gothic | |
| An entirely new sense of proportion | 96 |
| Late imperial China | |
| Nothing can possibly be more graceful | 98 |
| Late-flowering Gothic | |
| Palaces in the clouds | 100 |
| Mountain cities | |
| The Renaissance to Revivals 15th-18th Century | |
| Man is the measure of all things | 106 |
| The Renaissance | |
| A microcosm of cosmic harmony | 114 |
| Italian hill towns | |
| Crystalline sharpness, symmetrical complexity | 115 |
| The ideal city | |
| Extravagant inventions | 116 |
| Mannerism | |
| Nobility without arrogance | 118 |
| French and Spanish Renaissance | |
| A sweet harmony | 122 |
| Palladianism | |
| Splendid buildings and remarkable domes | 124 |
| The Ottoman Empire | |
| For the comfort of God's creatures | 126 |
| The caravanserai | |
| A universal symbol of the heavenly archetype | 127 |
| The Islamic garden | |
| The great peace under heaven | 128 |
| Edo-period Japan | |
| Isfahan is half the world | 132 |
| Safavid Empire | |
| A mind inclined entirely toward building | 134 |
| Mughal India | |
| Those who never dare to break the rules never surpass them | 138 |
| Baroque | |
| Emotion, grief, ecstasy, and faith | 146 |
| Latin American Baroque | |
| Gloriously spontaneous decorations | 148 |
| Rococo | |
| A beautiful and proportional simplicity | 150 |
| Classicism | |
| This monument must remain for an eternity | 154 |
| Russian Empire | |
| The Industrial Age 1800-1903 | |
| The Age of Machinery | 160 |
| The Industrial Revolution | |
| I strive to revive | 164 |
| Gothic Revival | |
| Fitting together like a puzzle | 168 |
| Prefabrication | |
| The authentic style of the old knights' castles | 172 |
| Eclecticism | |
| The straight line cannot be found in nature | 174 |
| Organic forms | |
| There is an attraction in the colossal | 176 |
| Wrought iron | |
| The desire to produce beautiful things | 178 |
| Arts and Crafts | |
| Do not the branches of the trees furnish us with models? | 180 |
| Art Nouveau | |
| Town and country must be made one | 182 |
| The garden city | |
| Modernism and the Alternatives 1903-1970 | |
| Every particle is doing structural duty | 188 |
| The concrete frame | |
| Ornament is wasted labor | 190 |
| Pioneering Modernism | |
| One entered the city like a god | 196 |
| Reviving the past | |
| An exhibition of force, of resolution, of brains | 198 |
| The skyscraper | |
| Visible symbol of power | 204 |
| Imperial legacy | |
| A structural artist | 206 |
| Industrial aesthetics | |
| We will remember them | 208 |
| War memorials | |
| Everything must be revolutionized | 210 |
| Futurism | |
| Function without sensibility remains mere construction | 212 |
| Expressionism | |
| The atmosphere of old Spain | 216 |
| Spanish Colonial revisited | |
| Creating a new world | 218 |
| Architecture of the Russian Revolution | |
| A house is a machine for living in | 220 |
| Functionalism | |
| The very best possible homes for workers | 226 |
| Expressive mass housing | |
| Every part had to speak | 228 |
| Elemental architecture | |
| Less is more | 230 |
| Building Minimalism | |
| Hot jazz in stone and steel | 232 |
| Art Deco | |
| The chairs are architecture | 234 |
| Architectural design | |
| A palace for the people | 236 |
| Metro style | |
| The urge to demonstrate one's strength | 238 |
| Statement architecture | |
| The new Rome will emerge | 242 |
| Italian Empire | |
| A building should appear to grow easily from its site | 246 |
| American Modern | |
| The humanizing of architecture | 248 |
| Humane Functionalism | |
| The truthfulness of materials of construction | 250 |
| Late Le Corbusier | |
| A mosaic of glass | 252 |
| Postwar skyscrapers | |
| An architecture of elegant omission | 254 |
| Mid-century Modern | |
| Modernism's angry underside | 256 |
| Brutalism | |
| Sensory stimulation | 260 |
| Sensual modernity | |
| Not simply designed but choreographed | 262 |
| A new city | |
| Overflowing fantasy | 264 |
| Free spirits | |
| Postmodern and Contemporary 1970 Onward | |
| On the edge of the possible | 270 |
| Pure form | |
| Material as spent light | 272 |
| Modern monumentalism | |
| A completely new world of forms | 274 |
| Gridshells and webs | |
| I put the structure outside | 276 |
| High-tech | |
| The past is transformed to become part of the present | 278 |
| The new vernacular | |
| Less is a bore | 280 |
| Postmodernism | |
| Daily life should be exalted | 286 |
| Postmodern Classical | |
| The spiritualization of nature | 288 |
| Connecting heaven and earth | |
| The form is interrogated | 290 |
| Deconstructivism | |
| Harmony with nature | 292 |
| Green architecture | |
| I work from the inside out | 300 |
| Sensationalism | |
| The house will define my world | 304 |
| Accessibility | |
| A living tradition | 305 |
| Classical Revival | |
| A beautiful silence | 306 |
| Soulful modern | |
| There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one? | 308 |
| New forms | |
| Understanding architecture by understanding the environment | 312 |
| West African architecture | |
| A deal between architecture and nature | 314 |
| Modernism in Sri Lanka | |
| A mechanism for healing the planet | 316 |
| Response to the earth | |
| Directory | 318 |
| Glossary | 326 |
| Index | 328 |
| Quote Attributions | 335 |
| Acknowledgments | 336 |
