In 'How Buildings Mean' (Goodman, Elgin,'Reconceptions in Philosophy and Other Arts and Sciences', Hackett, Indianapolis/Cambridge, 1988, pp. 31-48) Nelson Goodman exposes his 'reconception' of architecture. Using the notions exposed in 'Languages of A''t (LA) and 'Ways of Worldmaking' (WW), Goodman offers his aesthetic theory applied to architecture, considering architecture as an art and remarking its special features.

The aim of this paper is to explain and to evaluate the main aspects exposed in 'How Buildings Mean' framing Goodman's contributions in his philosophy and the philosophy of architecture, i.e., on the one hand, in Goodman's consideration about aesthetics as a branch of epistemology and of art as an especial way to symbolize and to construct and create worlds, and, on the other hand, in the branch of philosophy of architecture that considers or interprets architecture as a language or as containing meaning.

In this paper, 'How Buildings Mean' is interpreted from two different perspectives: the LA's and WW's perspective. Another studied aspect is the application of some notions of Goodman's aesthetics that Goodman himself does not relate to architecture.