"Sources of Architectural Form" provides a critical history of Western architecture theory from the ancient world to the present day. It focuses on design theory's central question: how does the architect generate architectural form? Theorists necessarily tackle this fundamental question in order to explain a number of puzzling issues including the origins of style, the persistence of tradition and the role of genius.
This book describes the major design theories in eight chronological periods, conveying their flavour with contemporary quotations. Each theory is analysed for its strengths and weaknesses. Gelernter identifies an important relationship between theories of design and theories of knowledge, and so explains and analyses each period's dominant epistemological concepts. Contemporary theorists of education are also examined, as many theorists from Vitruvius to Gropius included precepts for teaching as integral components of their ideas.

Why did the Victorians drape their buildings in elaborately ornate decoration? Why was the Arts and Crafts movement so popular with the American middle class at the end of the 19th century? Why did Modernism replace traditional architectural styles after World War II? Mark Gelernter provides fresh answers to questions like these, convincingly showing how buildings express powerful cultural forces.
Embodying deeply felt attitudes about fundamental issues, buildings express our relationship with nature, our social relations with others, the importance of the individual, the value of science and technology, and our political role in the world. He explains how designers sometimes expressed these ideas with available building technologies, while at other times they invented new technologies in order to realize new ideas. Each of the ten chronological chapters, accompanied by almost 300 photographs, drawings, and maps, begins with a broad survey of the dominant cultural forces and technologies, and then discusses how designers of the day responded with particular architectural forms.