Built upon Love

by Perez-Gomez, Alberto

• ISBN13: 9780262162388
• ISBN10: 0262162385
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-14
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

The forced polarity between form and function in considerations of architecture--opposing art to social interests, ethics to poetic expression--obscures the deep connections between ethical and poetical values in architectural tradition. Architecture has been, and must continue to be, writes Alberto Pérez-Gómez, built upon love. Modernity has rightly rejected past architectural excesses, but, Pérez-Gómez argues, the materialistic and technological alternatives it proposes do not answer satisfactorily the complex desire that defines humanity. True architecture is concerned with far more than fashionable form, affordable homes, and sustainable development; it responds to a desire for an eloquent place to dwell--one that lovingly provides a sense of order resonant with our dreams. In Built upon LovePérez-Gómez uncovers the relationship between love and architecture in order to find the points of contact between poetics and ethics--between the architect's wish to design a beautiful world and architecture's imperative to provide a better place for society. Eros, as first imagined by the early lyric poets of classical Greece, is the invisible force at the root of our capacity to create and comprehend the poetic image. Pérez-Gómez examines the nature of architectural form in the light of eros, seduction, and the tradition of the poetic image in Western architecture. He charts the ethical dimension of architecture, tracing the connections between philia--the love of friends that entails mutual responsibility among equals--and architectural program. He explores the position of architecture at the limits of language and discusses the analogical language of philiain modernist architectural theory. Finally, he uncovers connections between ethics and poetics, describing a contemporary practice of architecture under the sign of love, incorporating both erosand philia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Opening conversation	1	(2)
Introduction: Architecture and Human Desire	3	(6)
Historical origins of eros and philia	7	(2)
I Eros, Seduction, and the Poetic Image in Architecture: Form	9	(114)
1 Eros and Creation	11	(20)
Opening conversation	11	(1)
Primordial Eros	12	(2)
Eros as creative power in classical philosophy	14	(2)
Renaissance incorporations	16	(4)
Modern transformations	20	(5)
Orphic Eros in late modernity	25	(3)
Inspiration in contemporary praxis	28	(3)
2 Eros and Limits	31	(38)
Opening conversation	31	(1)
Eros, spacing, and joints	32	(4)
Erotic space and the origins of Western culture	36	(3)
Erotic architectural space in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili	39	(5)
Chora as erotic space	44	(7)
Renaissance incorporations	51	(5)
Modern transformations	56	(9)
Eros and time	65	(4)
3 Eros and the Poetic Image	69	(42)
Opening conversation	69	(2)
Origins	71	(2)
Marsilio Ficino and the poetic image in the Renaissance	73	(6)
The poetic image in Renaissance theory	79	(2)
Modern transformations	81	(13)
The poetic image in modernity	94	(7)
From Lequeu to Duchamp	101	(3)
Frederick Kiesler's endless architecture	104	(1)
Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum	105	(2)
The poetic image in the contemporary world	107	(4)
Interlude: Eros, Philia, and Agape	111	(12)
Eros and recognition	111	(7)
Philia, ethics, and communion	118	(2)
Philia, ergs, and agape	120	(3)
II Philia, Compassion, and the Ethical Dimension of Architecture: Program	123	(92)
Opening conversation	123	(2)
4 Philia, Ritual, and Decorum	125	(12)
Origins	125	(8)
From decorum to character	133	(4)
5 Architecture at the Limits of Language	137	(10)
Opening conversation	137	(2)
Language and architecture	139	(4)
Architecture as language	143	(4)
6 The Language of Philia in Architectural Theory	147	(20)
Vitruvian theory	147	(6)
The sequel	153	(14)
7 A Tale of Two Brothers: Jean-Louis and Charles-Francois Viel	167	(20)
The poetic architecture of Jean-Louis Viel	168	(5)
The political architecture of Charles-Francois Viel	173	(11)
Interweavings	184	(3)
8 Poetry and Meaning from within a (Western) Architectural Tradition	187	(16)
Opening conversation	187	(1)
Architecture from within	187	(5)
Architecture as poetic writing	192	(4)
Architecture as critical poem	196	(7)
9 The Ethical Image in Architecture	203	(12)
Opening conversation	203	(1)
Hermeneutics and ethical intentions	204	(7)
On endless desire	211	(4)
Notes	215	(28)
Index	243