"Why do some buildings make us feel happy or excited or tranquil? What is it in architecture that elicits pleasure? Grant Hildebrand asks these general questions in Origins of Architectural Pleasure, as well as more specific ones. To answer them, the author examines buildings and groups of buildingsfrom five continents and five millennia - that have retained their remarkable appeal or excitement. The book explores the reasons for such responses to the physical environment and relates some of our pleasure in architecture to elements in nature essential to survival, from the self-evident need for shelter to the aesthetic satisfaction of discovering order in complexly organized surroundings - or complexity in apparent order."--Jacket.