Evidence 81Put simply, what is properly evidential at any given
moment or for any given problem in the history of architec-
ture is ultimately a conceptual issue, with positions by no
means fi xed and by no means the subject of any consensus.
Certain materials will shed light on the questions of ‘what’,
‘how’, ‘where’, ‘who’ and ‘when’, but ‘why’ will always
require more deduction than these and demand different
analytical tools. Admittedly, these observations are most
easily addressed to an overly strict view on architectural
history as a history of buildings and the built environment,
and invoke a basic set of materials that a historian of archi-
tecture might consult in his or her research.
Consider how issues concerning evidence relate to two
of architectural historiography’s traditional problems: the
history of the building, and the history of the architect (and
of his or her buildings as an œuvre). As we briefl y noted
above, the close study of the building might take in its
representation in painting, etching, bas-relief, photography,
journalistic or professional criticism, popular imagery or
literature; the design drawings, tender notices, working draw-
ings, circulation studies, sketches of on-site modifi cations to
the architectural scheme, preparatory studies, building log-
books, graffi ti; correspondence between the architect and his
or her client, between the client and his or her fi nanciers,
between the architect and the project’s specialists, colleagues,
friends and family, or between any combination of architect,
client and municipal, regional or state authority. Such evi-
dence, taken together, might tell the historian a great deal
about the building and the circumstances of its design, con-
struction and life as a fi nished work.
To understand a building’s place in the œuvre of the archi-
tect, for instance, one would need to take into account the
trajectory and content of that œuvre, the range of infl uences
(strong and weak) working thereupon – from the seemingly
obvious to the indirect and happenstantial – the sources used
and references made by the architect, and the architect’s
ambitions for his or her practice, be they intellectual, aes-
thetic, social or technical, and whether they be recorded or
open to deduction. Here surveys of magazines, studies of
telephone books and business directories, calls for tender,
epistolary archives and oral histories can become important