Introducing Architectural Theory: Expanding the Disciplinary Debate

Building on the success of the first edition, an engaging and reader-friendly work on complex ideas, Introducing Architectural Theory: Expanding the Disciplinary Debate, broadens the range of themes, voices, and geographies represented to provide a more comprehensive and contemporary theory book.

This book presents major discourses in architectural theory and design in a debate-like format, integrating a series of edited texts across architectural history with context and newly written commentaries by the authors. This new edition has been fully revised, updated, and expanded to include long-standing debates, such as simplicity vs. complexity or the relationship between form and function, as well as newer discussions on innovation, globalization, and social equity. Authors Smith and Guitart provide a comprehensive means and conceptual framework for readers to compare multiple points of view. The chapter structure, discussion questions, and additional resources allow teachers to facilitate in-class discussions and writing assignments.

This book remains the most accessible architectural theory textbook, written for beginning architecture students and those outside the discipline. Its reflective and critical approach will equally engage the minds of upper-level students and experts.

Korydon Smith is an architecture professor and cofounder of the Community of Excellence in Global Health Equity at the University at Buffalo―The State University of New York, where he has served as department chair and associate dean. Smith holds an EdD in higher education leadership and a professional MArch degree and has taught a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral courses, as well as study abroad―receiving international recognition for his students’ work and seven awards for outstanding teaching. Drawing together expertise in the learning sciences, creative problem-solving, design, and social justice, Smith has conducted collaborative, applied research throughout the Global South. He is the author/editor of eight books―including four with Routledge―garnering two international book awards.

Miguel Guitart is an architect, author, and academic. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture at the University at Buffalo-SUNY, Buffalo, New York. Guitart obtained his PhD in Architecture from ETSAM, Polytechnic University of Madrid, and a professional MArch degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University as a JW Fulbright Scholar. His research focuses on the experiential intersections between matter, perception, and memory. Guitart has been awarded by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), the Architecture + Design Program at the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA), and the UB Humanities Institute as a Faculty Fellow. He is the author of Behind Architectural Filters: Phenomena of Interference (Routledge, 2022) and editor of Approaching Architecture: Three Fields, One Discipline (Routledge, 2023).