Learn about the buildings around you -- their style, period, and architectural features. Covering buildings from your own home to grand cathedrals, slip Gem Architecture in your pocket and find out more about the built environment. Ever wanted to be able to tell the difference between tudor and mock-tudor? Do you know what components make a building gothic? Ever wondered what has influenced how our towns and cities were built? Want to understand the major traditions of architecture? Architecture is all around us: it is part of our lives, and its continuing development is a central theme in the history of mankind. Learning to read a building is the route to understanding a major part of our cultural inheritance. Collins Gem Architecture takes the reader through the process of learning more about buildings and architecture. Starting with the basics of analysing the home, then moving onto looking at public buildings and larger and more well-known structures, Timothy Brittain-Catlin shows the reader how features are inherited and copied, as well as adapted with each new generation. Whether you live in a small flat or detached house, you can find traces of architectural history -- and learn to interpret the features you see and put them into the wider context of your surroundings. This book will help you start to uncover fascinating aspects of architectural style and history from the buildings you pass every day. Contents: Introduction: Architecture is for everyone The elements of architecture The Classical tradition The Gothic tradition The Nineteenth century Architecture since 1900 Thinking Architecturally / Also contains easy reference ID guides to important features and concepts