Treatise on digital architecture Hovestadt's treatise strictly follows the model of the famous treatises by Vitruvius (De architectura) and Alberti (De re aedificatoria), based on the supposition that we find ourselves in a comparable situation today. Vitruvius and Alberti expressed the meaning of architecture in their eras: Roman antiquity and the Renaissance. Hovestadt has done the same for the present day, incorporating considerations of physics, mathematics, technology, literature, and philosophy. Books 1 to 3 deal with the role of the architect and the objectivity of architecture. Books 4 to 6 address the modalities of speaking about and encoding architecture: the secret, the public, and the private.