An entry in a 1941 design competition brought an invitation from MoMA to tour the US; in the wake of Pearl Harbor, as an Austrian native, he was given the option of staying in the US.

Rudofsky variously taught at Yale, MIT, Cooper-Hewitt, Waseda University in Tokyo, and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

He attempts to break down our limited idea of this field and briefly introduce the reader to the vast and wise world of 'nonpedigreed architecture' (vernacular, indigenous, and often anonymous).

Another notable work, Now I Lay Me Down to Eat is an entertaining tour of historical and cultural alternatives to the design problems of everyday life—dining, sleeping, sitting, cleansing, and bathing—and was "neither meant to spread dangerous heresies nor to undermine our birthright to make the worst of possible choices.

Bernard gave two lectures on the sad state of clothing design, calling contemporary dress "anachronistic, irrational, impractical and harmful" and literally unsuitable.