She shrugged. "Take it. It looks like someone's old thesis notes. Probably a leftover from a student thirty years ago."

Norberg-Schulz argues that architecture is the concretization of human "existential space"—it embodies our way of being in the world rather than just serving functional needs.

The book establishes a "conceptual scheme" intended to help both practicing architects and historians analyze building tasks and finished works. Key components of this framework include:

Christian Norberg-Schulz’s 1963 work, Intentions in Architecture , establishes a foundational theory linking architectural design to existential space, bridging structuralist analysis with later phenomenological concepts. It provides a systematic framework for understanding architecture as a "concretization" of meaning, emphasizing the role of intentionality in shaping the built environment. Access the digital text via the Internet Archive .