A groundbreaking history of architecture told through the relationship between buildings and energy

The story of architecture is the story of humanity. The buildings we live in, from the humblest pre-historic huts to today's skyscrapers, reveal our priorities and ambitions, our family structures and power structures. And to an extent that hasn't been explored until now, architecture has been shaped in every era by our access to energy, from fire to farming to fossil fuels.

In this ground-breaking history of world architecture, Barnabas Calder takes us on a dazzling tour of some of the most astonishing buildings of the past fifteen thousand years, from Uruk, via Ancient Rome and Victorian Liverpool, to China's booming megacities. He reveals how every building - from the Parthenon to the Great Mosque of Damascus to a typical Georgian house - was influenced by the energy available to its architects, and why this matters.

Today architecture consumes so much energy that 40% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from the construction and running of buildings. If we are to avoid catastrophic climate change then now, more than ever, we need beautiful but also intelligent buildings, and to retrofit - not demolish - those that remain. Both a celebration of human ingenuity and a passionate call for greater sustainability, this is a history of architecture for our times.

"Provocative, enlightening... Calder is the perfect guide around some of mankind's most substantial achievements, but never swerves away from asking hard questions" - Herald

"[An] engaging study... It has something of the appeal of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel - that of grounding historical mysteries in material facts... Partly a hymn or elegy to the world that fossil fuels made, partly a warning of the disasters they are bringing... Calder makes a simple and important point, often with engaging and unexpected detail: architecture is indeed made by energy, which makes crucial the next stage of its evolution" - Observer

"A survey of construction and its entanglement with energy use... Superb" - Financial Times

"An essential read: clarifying, alarming, but hopeful" - Architects' Journal

"An insightful, often impassioned journey through the history of buildings" - New Scientist

"[A] powerful, disturbing account of architecture and energy since ancient times" - Nature

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Calder has written an energetic global history of architecture - energetic both in the vim he brings to a colossal subject, and in its particular focus... For the general reader, it's an entertaining and original introduction to the history of architecture. For the architect, it helpfully sets the daunting challenges of our day in lively and inspiring context

"A highly readable world history of architecture... This book will help to reinforce the crucial role of architecture in tackling the climate crisis" - RIBA Journal

"Calder's brilliant book [...arises from] a truly astonishing depth and breadth of research [...and] develops a new frame for architectural writing which frankly makes some of the previous architectural histories look at best parochial, or at worst irrelevant in the face of the global climate crisis" - Buildings and Cities

"Arguably the most important new contribution to the field of architectural history in decades" - Journal of Architecture

"[An] imaginative and ambitious new history of architecture... Engaging throughout... It really is a must-read" - The Earthbound Report

"Grand in scope... A splendid pause for thought" - International Times

"One of the most significant architectural publications in recent years... A fascinating history of architecture, a must-read for anyone interested in the relations between energy and architecture in history, and an important contribution to the discourse on energy in light of the climate emergency" - The Drouth

"Detailed and insightful" - RIBA Journal

"Groundbreaking" - Washington Post