Architecture in Context is a series of seven books describing and illustrating all the seminal traditions of architecture from the earliest settlements in the Euphrates and Jordan valleys to the stylistically and technologically sophisticated buildings of the second half of the twentieth century. It brings together the fruits of the author's lifetime of teaching and travelling the world, seeing and photographing buildings in an extraordinary synthesis. Each stand-alone volume sets the buildings described and illustrated within their political, technological, social and cultural contexts, exploring architecture not only as the development of form but as an expression of the civilization within which it evolved.

The series focuses on the story of the Classical tradition from its origins in Mesopotamia and Egypt, through its realization in ancient Greece and Rome, to the Renaissance, Neo-Classicism, Eclecticism and Modernism. This thread is supplemented with detailed excursions to cover the development of architecture in Central America, India, South-East Asia, and the Islamic world.

For students of architecture and art history, for travellers, and for readers who want to understand the genesis of the buildings they see around them, each volume provides a complete, readable and superbly illustrated reference.