56 What is Architectural History?
Biographical architectural history raises a number of spe-
cifi c conceptual issues. The reasons for any biographical turn
can be given as hard or soft, evidencing direct causality or
the subtle infl uence of any number of circumstantial factors
working together. An architect’s lifework might give rise to
persistent themes, which take on the appearance of an intel-
lectual or artistic project that demands interpretation as
much as it defi es it, or that justifi es aligning the architect with
others who appear to share his or her professional and artis-
tic concerns. The degree to which a specifi c building, subur-
ban plan, monument or unrealized design can be wholly
explained by the architect’s enduring artistic, cultural or tech-
nological project; by the architect’s personality; by the cul-
tural, historical and geographical circumstances of his or her
life; or even by the explanations he or she might give for the
work at hand: each is open to criticism by those who would
put the external forces of economics, politics, religion, mate-
rials, building technology, intellectual formation and profes-
sional institutions into play as forces stronger than any one
architect’s will.
Many architectural histories written in the biographical
mode are openly hagiographic and set out to install an
architect in the canon or to defend his or her place there.
Many architects themselves have not proven averse to writing
historical accounts of their own lives and practices, with
the effects ranging from critical to advertorial. Even the
most obviously biased and blinkered studies of individual
architects can, however, serve the valuable function of
documenting the relevant facts and sources relating to
someone’s life in practice. Those books and exhibitions
produced with the aim of introducing an architect to
the world are often works of passion and dedication that
are a fundamental foundation of materials upon which a
later historian can build as he or she works back over the
subject. Subsequent research will inevitably uncover new
materials, revise chronologies and reassess the signifi cance of
individual projects. That does not diminish the importance
of the fi rst step of recording the architect’s life and work.
Indeed, much of what we call ‘critical architectural history’
relies on this initial, often uneven layer of research and
analysis.