Serves as a guide to vital features of the architectural and social inheritance of the West. This work describes twenty types of buildings; and includes national monuments, libraries, theaters, hospitals, prisons, factories, hotels, and many other public buildings. It contains more than seven hundred illustrations.

This first survey of building types ever written remains an essential guide to vital and often overlooked features of he architectural and social inheritance of the West. Here Nikolaus Pevsner shares his immense erudition and keenly discerning eye with readers curious about the ways in which architecture reflects the character of society.

"A monument of lively scholarship, and also a most revealing anthology. . . . Gloriously informative. It brims with curious details."---Raymond Mortimer, Sunday Times