Writing Architecture: A Practical Guide to Clear Communication about the Built Environment

Writing Architecture considers the process, methods, and value of architecture writing based on Wiseman’s 30 years of experience in writing, editing, and teaching young architects how to write. This book creatively tackles a problematic issue that Wiseman considers crucial to successful architecture writing: clarity of thinking and expression. He argues that because we live our lives within the built environment, architecture is the most comprehensive and complex of all art forms.

Written as a primer for both college-level students and practitioners, Writing Architecture acknowledges and explores the boundaries between different techniques of architecture writing from myriad perspectives and purposes. Using excerpts from writers in different genres and from different historical periods, Wiseman offers a unique and authoritative perspective on the comprehensible writing skills needed for success.

Carter Wiseman is a graduate of Yale and Columbia Universities. He was the architecture critic and/or editor for a number of magazines including Newsweek, New York Magazine, Architectural Record, Interior Design, and ARTnews. He is a lecturer at the Yale School of Architecture, where he teaches courses focusing on architectural writing and criticism. His books include Twentieth-Century American Architecture: The Buildings and Their Makers and his biographical books on Louis I. Kahn and I. M Pei. He lives in Weston, Connecticut.