ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the socio-cultural context of architectural criticism and evaluation studies. It considers understanding the context for the critic, evaluator, project or building, and the society at large as a key factor that infl uences the outcome of these studies. While this book attempts to demonstrate that the “two currently divergent paradigms of architectural criticism and building performance evaluations can co-exist and even complement each other,” I argue that there is a critical and dynamic context that should be considered when initiating criticisms and evaluation studies, and when attempting to understand their value to the individual, society, and profession.
