For nearly fifty years, the building has primarily been understood as a means rather than an end with- in architectural history and theory. This volume presents an alternative to that trend by reconceiving the building as a central discursive category in its own right. Contributors, including academics and architects from world-renowned institutions, aim to recast architectural design thinking as a domain of knowledge by turning the object into a primary concern. As a result, The Building offers insightful discussions of key architectural structures conceived in Europe, Asia, and the U.S.A. over the last three decades. In exploring these structures through a number of meta-disciplinary questions, this book suggests ways in which buildings can trigger conceptual frameworks whose influence extends well beyond architecture. A balanced text-to-image ratio caters to a variety of readers in both practice and academia.publiarq.com