Is architecture in a state of crisis? Or are the critics simply in a state of confusion? Either way, the problems of architecture today are rooted in the history of architectural ideas. Those ideas--from the Picturesque to the Modern Movement; from the Neo-Classicism and the Gothic Revival to New Brutalism and Post-Modernism--form the basis of this original and highly readable book. Ranging widely over English architecture during the last two hundred years--Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, Modern--"The Dilemma of Style" explores the way in which generations of architects and theorists have searched for a key to the conundrum of style. Richly illustrated and densely argued, with scores of quotations and hundreds of references, this is not another history of English architecture: it is almost an encyclopaedia of architectural ideas.

This challenging book confronts one of the central problems of architectural theory: the nature--and necessity--of style.