How to Study Architecture is Charles H. Caffin’s accessible guide to understanding and appreciating the art of building, written for the general reader rather than the specialist. Caffin, an American art critic, traces the development of architecture from ancient Egypt and Greece through the Gothic and Renaissance to his own day, explaining how to read structures and the ideas behind them.
Rather than cataloguing buildings, Caffin teaches the reader to see, drawing attention to proportion, structure, ornament, and the relationship between form and purpose. The book reflects the early-twentieth-century movement to bring art appreciation to a wide public. It remains a clear and engaging introduction for anyone wishing to look at architecture with a more informed and attentive eye.