Introduction

Part One reconstructs the competing lenses through which we interpret architectural production. We begin by challenging the historical assumption that architecture is a fine art, and because that characterization alone proves valuable, but insufficient, we turn to empirical analysis to find out what it is that contemporary architects actually think and talk about. Through a content analysis of a recognized North American journal of architecture over several decades, we found 22 specific topics of concern that we subsequently grouped into five, and finally three, meta-categories—art, technology, and professionalism. Our claim is that these meta-categories serve as an index, albeit a reductive one, of contemporary architectural thinking.