The Elements of Architecture is a clear and well structured introduction to sustainable architecture, which concentrates on general principles to make an accessible and comprehensive primer for undergraduate students. The author takes a fresh and logical approach, focusing on the way aspects of the built environment are experienced by the occupants and how that experience is interpreted in architectural design. He works through basic elements and senses (sun; heat; light; sound; air; water and fire) to explain and frame effective environmental architectural design - not only arguing that the buildings we inhabit should be viewed as extensions of our bodies that interact with and protect us from these elements, but also using this analogy to explain complex ideas in an accessible manner.

The Elements of Architecture is a clear and well structured introduction to sustainable architecture, which concentrates on general principles to make an accessible and comprehensive primer for undergraduate students. The author takes a fresh and logical approach, focusing on the way aspects of the built environment are experienced by the occupants and how that experience is interpreted in architectural design. He works through basic elements and senses (sun; heat; light; sound; air; water and fire) to explain and frame effective environmental architectural design - not only arguing that the buildings we inhabit should be viewed as extensions of our bodies that interact with and protect us from these elements, but also using this analogy to explain complex ideas in an accessible manner.

This work examines how changing conceptions of the human body have been interpreted within architectural theory since the writings of Vitruvius in the first century AD. It will examine how measures of the body have affected ideas of architectural composition, and how they are used as an ethical imperative, such that a building which reflects the proportions of a 'well-composed' body (Francesco di Giorgio), is itself an injunction to 'composure', or appropriate behaviour. It will argue that modern architecture, while rejecting classical anthropomorphism, was nonetheless influenced by ideas and practices arising from the study of the body in anatomy. It will then examine phenomenological and hermeneutical conceptions of the lived body, giving rise to a renewed conception of anthropomorphism as the manifestation not only of human form, but of human sentience. The work will provide a foundation for scholars of architectural history and theory interested in the ongoing role of the body in architecture.