Detailing Worlds

A Conceptual History of Architectural Detail

By: Eric Bellin

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Paperback | 16 April 2026

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Paperback
376 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
24.0 x 18.8 x 2.6

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In the 21st century, the word âdetailâ appears constantly in discussions of building, and we use it in many different waysâ"yet just over 250 years ago, âdetailâ meant nothing at all particular to the work of architects, engineers, or builders.

Detailing Worlds is the first book to examine the origins and evolution of âdetailâ as a concept with meanings specific to practices of building. By exploring how past meanings and roles were ascribed to detail in different âworlds of practiceââ"those of academics, technicians, students, engineers, and architectsâ"Detailing Worlds looks to the future, illuminating the ways disciplinary knowledge and the concepts on which it is based evolve and change over time. It is a story about how such concepts are slowly but constantly reconceived, redefined, and transformed by individuals as they interact with one another, and how this process is shaped by the ever-changing sociocultural and technological dimensions of the world around us.

Richly illustrated with more than 200 images, including figures from rare texts, archival student drawings, and practitionersâ construction documents from the 18th through 20th centuries, Detailing Worlds ventures to tell the history of a disciplinary-specific idea and offer insights about how we think and speak about the practice of building today.

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