Some of the houses are celebrated for their role in architectural history, others have become iconic for their individual features or structure, but all are seminal forms of dwelling. The selection ranges from the palaces of kings to the individual huts of the Hutu, but the book illustrates with magnitude that the essential qualities of the home remain greatly unchanged over the centuries. Each architect or designer is represented by a full-page reproduction, mostly in colour, of their most significant house and an accompanying text that describes the image and its designer. Each page includes meticulous cross-references to other architects working in a similar style, movement or time period. The book also includes an easy-to-use glossary of architectural terms and movements and an extensive directory of houses open to the public.