Architecture: from prehistory to climate emergency

The publication of Barnabas Calder’s Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency is significant. There are probably no more than a dozen key textbooks in circulation in universities today that provide a synoptic introduction to architectural history. Attempting to write a new primer in architectural history, especially one that can be referred to both in history classes and in other parts of the curriculum, is a daunting endeavour. For its broad applicability and accessibility, Calder’s book is arguably the most important new contribution to the field of architectural history in decades. It arrives at a moment of profound anthropocentric reflection: after the explosions of outrage voiced through the Rhodes Must Fall and Black Lives Matter movements, the Eurocentrism and structural racism of institutions around the world has now been undeniably foregrounded. With environmental disasters unfolding on every continent, the demands of Architects Declare and Architecture Education Declares place new pressures on our discipline (both in education and in practice) to radically change the way in which we value materials, buildings, and energy. To understand the significance of this book, we should consider the problematic character of teaching architectural history as part of an architecture education. The signature pedagogy of architecture education is the design studio, but a problematic consequence of the pre-eminence of the design studio in architecture education is keenly felt in those parts of the curriculum that are not a part of it. If half of the curriculum is expected to be design studio (and the Royal Institute of British Architects requires validated courses to allocate 50% of credits to ‘design studio’), then the teaching of structures, technology, environment, theory and history, urban planning, and professional studies has to fit in the other half. At its best moments, the design studio offers students an