This publication is an anthology of writings by the leading theoretical voice of the Czechoslovak interwar avant-garde architecture, art, and design Karel Teige (1900–1950). Teige’s theory of architecture evolved from an interest in constructivism and economics (1922–28), to a sociological analysis (1923–36), followed by attempts to articulate a dialectical relationship between functionalism and surrealism and between architecture and psychoanalysis (1937–47). The book includes a scholarly introduction and a selection of Teige’s essays on architecture, presented in English. Teige has been known mostly for his polemics with Le Corbusier and his teaching at Bauhaus (1929–30). Karel Teige’s Theory and Criticism: Reflections on Architecture, Art, and Society presents a full scope of Teige’s original and insightful thinking on architecture to the English-speaking public—beyond what is broadly known of Teige, his polemics with Le Corbusier and his teaching at Bauhaus (1929–30).

Jana Ndiaye Berankova is an art and architecture theorist and historian, philosopher, writer, publisher, and researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In 2024–25, she was a fellow at Columbia University’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris. She also taught at NYU Prague; the School of Applied Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague; and the Brno University of Technology. In 2023, she completed her dissertation, titled “A Productive Misunderstanding? Architecture Theory and French Philosophy 1965 to 1990” at Columbia University Graduation School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Previously, she studied at École Normale Supérieure, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, both in Paris; Free University, Berlin; and Masaryk University, Brno. Her research focuses on the links between continental philosophy and the theory of architecture, and between Marxism and West African and Central European architecture. She runs the nonprofit Suture Press distributed by Les Presses du réel.