First, it should be made clear that the title refers to architecture as in houses and factories, not computer architecture. The contents comprise 11 papers presented at an international conference in France in 1985, with no introduction or editorial links, nor even any clear logic in the sequence of printing. So the potential value of the book lies in the individual papers.

The breakdown of papers is as follows: one on architectural education in CAD (with a complete curriculum as an appendix), two on the impact on the architectural profession (both American with a strongly commercial point of view), one on the UK market (data now obsolete), one on the Nordic experience (especially concerned with standards), one on a Japanese government-sponsored research program (exhaustively describing research topics, not results), two on visualization (one on photomontages, one on realism in computer-generated perspectives), one on client-participation using CAD (unillustrated), and two on structural design in concrete.

Some of the papers make interesting points. For example, the photomontage paper describes a super-accurate program for generating images of new buildings, and then notes that the images have to be overlaid on photos whose viewpoints are unknown, thus undermining the accuracy of the final result; the Nordic paper makes many intelligent observations, including requests for standards on the use of layers in drafting programs, and more effective ways of recording the revision status of designs held in CAD systems; one of the professional impact studies compares two reactions to increased productivity--either to cut professional training and reduce the number of professionals (a UK reaction) or to seek new markets aggressively (a US reaction); and so on.

The book is poorly illustrated. Some figures referred to in papers are omitted, and the client-participation paper is rendered almost useless because it is little more than the introduction to a missing slide presentation. The original typescripts are reproduced. One benefit of the book is to bring to an English-speaking audience works from Belgium, Italy, Scandinavia, etc. (along with some eccentric translation).

Overall, this book cannot be given a high priority. It is not an effective introduction or overview. It cannot be recommended for architectural or engineering professionals who wish to find out about CAD in their field. But readers who are already specialists in architectural CAD, and who want to read everything on the topic, may be able to broaden their knowledge somewhat by studying this book.