He was author, with his wife, architect Brenda Dyer Szabo (1926–2017),[3] of “Preliminary Notes on the Indigenous Architecture of Afghanistan” (Harvard Graduate School of Design, 1978) and, with anthropologist, Thomas Barfield, of, “Afghanistan: An Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture” (University of Texas Press, 1991).
[5] He studied Science and Fine Arts at Brooklyn College from 1942 to 1947 under the guidance of architect, Serge Chermayeff.
During his time at Brooklyn College he spent summers as apprentice to Bauhaus architect, Marcel Breuer.
His experiences in the Middle East also led him in 1979 to create a seminar on indigenous architecture, the first of its kind at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Teaching the class helped him to further develop his theories regarding the relationship between culture, climate, and context as basic to the evolution of form and purpose in indigenous and contemporary architecture.
His post-retirement years were chiefly occupied with the making of art, particularly the creation of sculpture from found objects such as typewriters, tool handles, barrel staves, and shoe forms.
[6] Between 2012 and 2014 a collection was donated to Harvard University (the Frances Loeb Library Special Collections Rare),[7] as well as to the Bauhaus-Archiv museum für gestaltung [8] [9] Albert Szabo was enrolled in Science Studies at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY from 1942 to 1944.
From 1970 to 1972 he held the position of chairman of the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University.
In 1974 he was Acting Curator for the Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Studies, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
In 1967 he joined his colleague at Harvard, Jerzy Soltan to create the architectural practice, Soltan/Szabo Associates in Cambridge, MA.