The foundations of architecture, which until a few years ago were avant-garde and dogmatic, are undergoing a profound revision. This is evident in diverse aspects such as a renewed concern for the user, the growing appreciation for inherited architectural heritage, the return of ornamentation, the search for warmth in spaces, the personalization of environments, and the use of natural materials.
Nikos Salingaros presents, with conciseness and clarity, a theory that allows us to understand all these facts as parts of the same phenomenon. This theory can be called unified because it describes and helps to understand different architectural styles. The analysis is objective, free from philosophical, ideological, or political biases. Building on the theories of Christopher Alexander and drawing on deep mathematical and scientific knowledge, he explains the root of forms and their relationship to human beings, sets out the proportions of architecture, unravels the universal scale underlying the structures we consider "living," and demonstrates the advances in neuroscience in the study of the relationship between humans and the built environment. Furthermore, not without irony, he provides a comprehensive view of the current architectural neo-avant-garde, which is entangled in convoluted academic discussions lacking true theoretical support.
The architecture that Salingaros defends is much more than a race for formal originality. It is the result of a discipline and a methodology that reintroduces human beings to nature and addresses their physiological and psychological (or spiritual) configuration, providing the reader with a complete and refreshing perspective that will forever change their view of architecture.
