ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how architectural theory has treated the theme of systems and systems thinking. Through a number of examples from architectural theory a collection of points will be extracted in order to be used in the later parts of the monograph, or avoided as apparent blind alleys. The scanning of architectural theories has been limited to a Western perspective while being conscious that Asian architecture and architectural philosophy deal extensively with the same questions. Vitruvius establishes functional categories or standards of building types. Apart from clock making and construction of machinery which Vitruvius considered as separate branches of construction, buildings are divided into two general types: public facilities and private buildings. Public buildings are then subdivided into three functional classes: defensive, religious and utilitarian. The fundamental principles of architecture are by Durand reduced to only two being 'proprietary' and 'economy', architecture as a combination and weighing of the most fitting and the most economic.
