The discussion begins with a recognition of the differences between unselfconscious (vernacular) and self-conscious designs. Understanding vernacular architecture is a precursor to understanding the history of self-conscious design efforts from classical to modern times. Each period of architecture from the Classical to the Modernist to the Postmodernist is reviewed. The chapter provides a description and explanation of the evolving nature of clients and architects, and the socioeconomic and technological context in which architectural ideas have been produced. The ideas are then correlated with design outcomes.