Throughout history the creation and shaping of the built environment has been at the forefront of human endeavour. The Story of Architecture is the account of how men and women of ingenuity and imagination have taken the most elementary of human needs and transformed them into some of the greatest manifestations of the human civilization. The story is told in a clear and fluent narrative that covers the entire world and the whole of human history. Each chapter charts a stage in the development of architecture, thus dividing the book into natural study units, and the illustrations and plans are closely keyed to the text.For this new edition, the author has revised and updated the whole text and bibliography, and has greatly expanded the treatment of the modern and contemporary' periods. The book has been completely redesigned, with more than 400 illustrations, half of them in colour. Valuable new features are maps, time charts and architects' biographies.