In the 1960s and '70s Ralph Erskine wrote a number of articles where he manifested and developed his view on architecture and its role in society. These articles are important to understand his oeuvre, but have not received the same attention as his built work. This essay aims at explicating the central themes as well as tracing changes and recurrences in the articles during the most important decades of his lifelong career.

The articles were published in a range of different magazines, some in rather marginal ones with a limited distribution, others only in the Swedish language. This accounts in part for the reason his thoughts are primarily known through secondary sources. Nonetheless, his writings present significant and sometimes even original thoughts on architecture.