Architecture and the Public World brings together key writings by Kenneth Frampton, the eminent architectural historian and critic, from the 1980s to the present. Articles are grouped into thematic sections representing abiding concerns of Frampton's criticism: history and critical theory, modes of criticism, the vicissitudes of urban form, and tactility, tectonics, and resistance. The volume also includes a new interview with Frampton and an essay by Clive Dilnot exploring the relevance of Frampton's thought for design history and criticism.

The anthology represents Frampton's abiding concern for labor and the political dimensions of architecture, including his development of the concept of 'critical regionalism', but, in featuring writings from across the range and breadth of Frampton's career, enables a broader understanding of his work, demonstrating the potential for architectural interpretation and analysis to function as a mode of cultural criticism.