Using the analytical perspectives of architecture, comparative literature, and cultural studies, the essays in the book examine the role of memory in the creation of our built environment. Part I examines the ways institutions and individuals construct national memory. Eric Sandweiss discusses American urban history museums; Mark Jarzombek addresses the reconstruction of Dresden, Germany; Fernando Lara contrasts Brazilian modern architecture to earlier European modernism; and Maria de Lourdes Luz and Ana Lucia Santos look at Brazilian history through the prism of the coffee plantation system. Part II focuses on the treatment of place in literature. Sabir Khan spotlights the experiences of two South Asian women who return to their homelands after several years abroad to discover changes in their native landscape. Barbara Mann explores the Old Cemetry in Tel Aviv, while Carel Bertram considers images of the Turkish house, and Eleni Bastea examines the cities of Thessaloniki and Istanbul as reflected in literary novels. Part III comprises three personal essays: Catherine Hamel on Beirut, Christine Gorby on Belfast, and V. B. Price on Los Angeles and Albuquerque.
"The Voices from the Studio" in Part IV considers the ways memory may apply to the teaching of architecture. Thomas Fisher writes about the state of architectural education, Rachel Hurst and Jane Lawrence describe their teaching methods. Sheona Thomson examines the relationship between the spaces of architecture and the spaces of literature asking, "Why couldn't we be drawn more often into learning about architecture by studying how it has been painted by Giotto, or described by Virginia Woolf, or, for that matter, by being asked to reflect on our own recollections of place?"