This book originates in two symposia held during 1985 at the annual meetings of the Society for Applied Anthropology and the Environmental Design Research Association.

"Rapoport is concerned with the meanings which buildings, their contents, and their inhabitants convey, and the conclusions which can be drawn therefrom for procedures of architectural design to satisfy the people who will ultimately live in these buildings. . . . A challenging book on a subject that has had insufficient attention in the past."--"Man and Environment"
"Fills a significant gap: it introduces the notion of environmental meaning so clearly that no reader will doubt the basic premise that the environment holds meaning as part of a cultural system of symbols, and influences our actions and our determinations of social order."--"Design Book Review"
"This is the second edition of a book first published in 1982. . . . Enthusiastic and inquiring as the reader is brought into the writer's thought processes."--"Progress in Human Geography" (England)
"It has merits not to be found in any other book in this much-discussed and little understood subject, to wit: it is short, it is simple, and it is useful. It is even, in parts, entertaining....a book which will help architects to do their job better." --"Architecture Australia"