Edward Lacy Garbett,(1826-1901)saw architecture as a necessary evil; understood the continuity of aesthetics with daily life; demanded architecture be polite; approached the problem of style from a consistently tectonic perspective; predicted tensile construction as the style of the future; wanted to stuff St Paul's like a chesterfield sofa; experienced a miracle on returning from Jamaica in the 1840's; died in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1900 on an expedition to discover the remains of Noah's Ark; invented a System of National Health; wrote one of the most sincere and and refreshing books on architectural aesthetics. The contents of this site include:

The full text of Garbett's Rudimentary Treatise (1850)

My doctoral thesis: The Necessity of Architecture, a study of Edward Lacy Garbett's Theory of Architecture (1996)

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