This book features thirteen essays by the late architect, philosopher and teacher Dalibor Vesely (1934-2015). This collection presents the full range of his writing, drawing primarily from the history of art and architecture, as well as philosophy, theology, anthropology and ecology, and spanning from early antiquity to modernism.
Authoritative, compelling and original scholarship... The present collection is also noteworthy because of the clarity and intelligence of the introductory presentation of Vesely and his ideas; and because of the cohesive sequence of the essays, positioning not only one after the other but because of the other, presenting an overall stance with respect to architecture's role in culture and its history.
David Leatherbarrow, University of Pennsylvania School of Design, USA
This is an excellent collection of Vesely's essays, some published for the first time, which will be appreciated by a broad audience, not just architectural academics. The choice and order of chapters is very well considered and demonstrates the range and depth of Vesely's scholarship. The introduction is beautifully written and perfectly situates the essays.
Nicholas Temple, London Metropolitan University, UK
Vesely's scholarship is outstanding... This is a long overdue collection that has been eagerly awaited by architects, historians and theorists for many years. It is a significant contribution to architectural thinking and makes important material available for new readers.
Mari Hvattum, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway
Alexandra Stara is associate professor and reader in the history and theory of architecture at Kingston University London and a qualified architect in her native Greece, with Masters degrees from UCL and the University of Cambridge, and a PhD from the University of Oxford. She has been lecturing and publishing on art and architecture for the past three decades.
Peter Carl taught graduate design and the graduate programme in the history and philosophy of architecture at the University of Cambridge with Dalibor Vesely for 30 years. He then established the PhD programme in architecture at London Metropolitan University, where he was professor until his retirement. He has lectured and taught internationally, publishing a body of work that interprets architectural and urban order in terms of phenomenological hermeneutics.
Acknowledgements Foreword | David Leatherbarrow Introduction | Peter Carl and Alexandra Stara 1. Architecture and the Limits of Modern Theory 2. Architecture and the Question of Technology 3. The Architectonics of Embodiment 4. The Relation of Religion and Science 5. Architecture and Ethics in the Age of Fragmentation 6. The Hermeneutics of the Latent World of Architecture 7. Architecture as a Humanistic Discipline 8. Elements of Architecture and their Meaning 9. Mathesis Universalis in the Jesuit Tradition 10. Surrealism and Latent World of Creativity 11. Czech New Architecture and Cubism 12. Spatiality, Simulation and the Limits of the Technological Imagination 13. Between Architecture and the City Illustration Credits Index