A rarity among authors who focus on the relentlessly forward-looking profession of architecture, Witold Rybczynski is generally considered something of a conservative. Born in Scotland, educated in England and Canada and residing in Philadelphia, Mr. Rybczynski wrote in the introduction to his most recent book, “How Architecture Works: A Humanist’s Toolkit” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), “I consider history a gift, rather than an imposition.” While a few of his 18 books are set firmly in the past, most, like the 1986 best-seller, “Home: A Short History of an Idea,” use a broad historical perspective to better frame the present. His writing has a patient, deliberate quality that is rare at a moment when the dominant medium of architectural discourse is Twitter. Perhaps this is why Mr. Rybczynski, despite himself, is suddenly all the rage. On May 1 he was named a “Design Mind” by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in its annual National Design Awards, an honor generally bestowed on visionary thinkers. On the same day he attended the National Magazine Awards as a nominee for three columns he wrote for Architect magazine in which he revisited significant buildings and neighborhoods that were completed many years ago to see how they’ve stood the test of time. (This interview, which was conducted by phone and email, has been edited and condensed.)