The starting point of this paper is the idea that models of architectural and urban historiography that intend to challenge Eurocentrism should place particular emphasis on revealing the different agents that contributed to the realization of architectural and urban projects under study. Archival research plays a major role in bringing to light the aspects concerning these different agents. Moreover, the study of primary sources should include investigation in archival sources that represent both western and non-western as well as both Eurocentric and non-Eurocentric perspectives. Europe, as a concept, represents the potential for an enlightened resistance in a world that is progressively becoming dominated by the mono-perspectivism of globalism. The educational mission of the nineteenth century university should be interpreted in relation to the ideals of Enlightenment, which are at the core of the task of the historian to challenge the articulations between will, authority, and the use of reason. The paper places particular emphasis on Immanuel Wallerstein’s conception of and on Reinhart Koselleck’s overlapping temporal layers.