ABSTRACT
This introduction provides an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book covers the formation of architectural mentalities and the nature of what is termed the rhetorical tradition; that is, the tendency for architectural logic to be maintained within bounded sets of compatible ideas. It then explores the 'opposing' elemental tradition, and tendencies common to academic and urban disciplines whereby logic is singular in its focus, relatively objective, open-ended, and subject to correction rather than rejection by new or incoming generations. The book also explains the differences between rhetorical and elemental forms of logic, and the manner in which architectural theory is built from both forms. It concerns definitions of meaning that relate to architecture and the city. The book covers sources of theory that are concerned with meaning, and which are external to architecture as a field.
