History and Theory of Architecture

What is architecture? The buildings that we walk past every day without actually seeing them? The ones we can't remember when they were suddenly demolished? Or those that were already lost, and which we seem to rebuild à l'identique after decades in a completely changed environment, with changed technology and for a new purpose? The ones that you visit as a tourist because that's what you've been doing for 500 years, and because you've seen their media representations countless times?

Is it important to know canonical buildings and their unique, specific architectural history, or is it better to see grey, ordinary architecture and its significance for our everyday lives? Is the structural overview of 3000 years of architectural history more effective than the pleasure of looking at individual, irrelevant, perhaps minimal achievements and solutions? Is it the average of famous historical and anonymous everyday architecture that gives us a location in our globalised world? In the end, are we the ones who define the meaning and value of architecture?

So what is the history of architecture? The subject of architectural history finds itself in a dilemma. In the study of architecture, the aim is to provide a focus for the immense mass of what exists and what has passed, wanting to promote the precise analysis of the individual. It aspires to encourage people to see and talk about architecture, to reflect on its tasks and goals, its successes and failures. Looking backwards, moving forwards: "En avant, en avant".