Five Types of Beautiful Buildings, and how our reading of Vitruvius could do with correction

Nicholas Ray, 11 November 2026

Nicholas practised as an architect in Cambridge and also taught in the University’s Department of Architecture. He is an Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge. This book arose from lectures and seminars given as a Visiting Professor at the University of Liverpool. His lecture will concentrate on the idea of Beauty, the third of the trinity of Firmitas, Utilitas, and Venustas, appearing in Vitruvius’s De Architectura, using examples from different periods, including those from the twentieth century which continue to provoke widely different reactions.

Image of book cover provided by the author