It's interesting. Apparently, in mid-to-late 20th century, the discipline of architecture was bursting with self-described architects who rarely, if ever, had buildings created.

They instead focused on architectural 'theory', which meant anything from phenomenological approaches to space (Gaston Bachelard), to 'Architecture as Metaphor' (see book with same title by Kojin_Karatani, a critical theorist), hell, even theory-fiction (Benjamin H. Bratton).

A whole generation (or two, three?) of theorists have spent lots of time intellectualizing and philosophizing what, for a long time, seemed to be a design-oriented, practical discipline.

I wish I had sources for this -- it's only through informal conversations with practicing architects and theorists that I learned these things.