Buildings Across Time brilliantly explores the essential attributes of architecture by uniquely combining both a detailed survey of Western architecture, including Pre-Columbian America, and an introduction to architecture from the Middle East, India, Russia, China, and Japan. Authors have searched out the stories these buildings have to tell, considered the intentions of the people who built them, and examined the lives of those who used them. The text contains extensive descriptive narrative leavened with focused critical analysis, which both allows the book to stand alone and invites lecturers to impose their studied interpretations on the material without the danger of undue ambiguity or conflict. In a world that grows smaller by the day, it presents a global perspective, and in a discipline that concerns built objects that are often beautiful as well as functional, it is copiously illustrated, intelligently designed, and consistently usable.

Updated with expanded coverage of twenty-first century architecture, this new edition uniquely comprises a detailed survey of Western architecture as well as architecture from the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, India, Russia, China and Japan. Significant revision also includes photographs and textual discussion of around 50 new buildings. Written in a clear and engaging style, the text encourages readers to examine the pragmatic, innovative and aesthetic attributes of buildings. Artistic, economic, environmental, political, social and technological contexts are discussed. The global reach of the text is matched by a rich assortment of photographs from around the world and a greater array of detailed line drawings than in any architectural survey. The authors have created a formidable body of work that ranges over much of the world's architectural heritage and testifies to some of the greatest achievements of the human spirit.