i would check out china meville (he has a vivid and unique way of describing something while at the same time giving the reader no idea what he's describing - yet still satisfying) and borges.. interesting thread!
Vermillion Sands by J G Ballard is very good; It takes place in an decaying imaginary resort; Hi-Rise, and Concrete Island also by Ballard, are deadpan dystopias. Italo Calvino Invisible Cities is alot of fun. The Eco reference is probably his collection of travel essays TRAVELS in HYPER REALITY. SNAPSHOTS by Robbe-Grillet are short scenographic blueprints in detail.
House of Leaves is the most architecture specific horror story I've read. It involves a fictional documentary, in which a photographer finds his house is bigger on the inside than the outside. Heavy references to Borges, and the occasional reference to Bachelard. At one point, the story breaks into an insane list of buildings, and a deep analysis of acoustic properties. Even the name is a play on it. A book is a house of leaves, yes? It's by Mark Z. Danielewski.
Apart from Foucault's Pendulum, I don't think Umberto Eco talks as much about architecture. Victor Hugo certainly does, and Nortre Dame de Paris is almost entirely about the cathedral. He digresses into the history of various buildings, often for entire chapters.
House of Leaves was pretty good - a little crazy towards the end, but rewarding. It is a shame that archinect got rid of the 'books' section.
A book I found once on that section is 'Delirium, a Novel', by Douglas Cooper. It was written by an architecture student drop-out, who organizes the book into three themes: Plan, Elevation, Section. If you are into dystopian novels I would definitely recommend this one:
I remember a journal article that was written about the need of relating literature to architectural history where fiction is a great reference point for imagining or studying architectural theory— kind of like what jmang's story points out.
Maybe we could start a architecture in fiction citation thread?
I was reading Beowulf a few months back and realized that either the English or the Danish-Scandinavians had a pretty significant concept of urban planning as illustrated by the focal point of the mead hall. Then I thought about not only the resources that went into building the hall but how it was situated. In addition, I was thinking about the amount of honey (for honey mead) such an establishment would require to keep a small town relatively drunk. I'm making the assumption that these people must have possessed some knowledge about bee husbandry and would have had to provide the bees with a source of nectar [flower agriculture].
Am wondering if the Scandinavian mead hall is purely an independent and unique archtype or if this was the imagination of the presumably English writer whose own environment was heavily influenced by Roman planning.
architecture in Fiction
something that i have been trying to think about for a bit so i thought i would throw it out the the message board.
what are some of your favorite accounts in literature of architectural space?
people like calvino or eco spring to mind, but i would love to hear some of your suggestions!
who is eco?
ummmm ... berto?
The Trial by Kafka
i would check out china meville (he has a vivid and unique way of describing something while at the same time giving the reader no idea what he's describing - yet still satisfying) and borges.. interesting thread!
Landor's Cottage, by Edgar Allan Poe
look into alain robbe-grillet's work. also, he wrote the screenplay for an alain resnais film, last year in marienbad. here are the opening scenes..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohnFpTNGY0g&feature=related
William Gibson's Bridge trilogy (Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties)
jorge luis borges . the library of babel and ficciones
Vermillion Sands by J G Ballard is very good; It takes place in an decaying imaginary resort; Hi-Rise, and Concrete Island also by Ballard, are deadpan dystopias. Italo Calvino Invisible Cities is alot of fun. The Eco reference is probably his collection of travel essays TRAVELS in HYPER REALITY. SNAPSHOTS by Robbe-Grillet are short scenographic blueprints in detail.
The Spire by William Golding
House of Leaves is the most architecture specific horror story I've read. It involves a fictional documentary, in which a photographer finds his house is bigger on the inside than the outside. Heavy references to Borges, and the occasional reference to Bachelard. At one point, the story breaks into an insane list of buildings, and a deep analysis of acoustic properties. Even the name is a play on it. A book is a house of leaves, yes? It's by Mark Z. Danielewski.
Apart from Foucault's Pendulum, I don't think Umberto Eco talks as much about architecture. Victor Hugo certainly does, and Nortre Dame de Paris is almost entirely about the cathedral. He digresses into the history of various buildings, often for entire chapters.
H.P. Lovecraft has some short stories that come to mind: The Outsider, At the Mountains of Madness and The Colours Out of Space.
House of Leaves was pretty good - a little crazy towards the end, but rewarding. It is a shame that archinect got rid of the 'books' section.
A book I found once on that section is 'Delirium, a Novel', by Douglas Cooper. It was written by an architecture student drop-out, who organizes the book into three themes: Plan, Elevation, Section. If you are into dystopian novels I would definitely recommend this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Delirium-Douglas-Anthony-Cooper/dp/0786863412/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311363697&sr=8-1
My favorite scene involves a character in the book who has to design a prison cell for an architect.... imagine.
@swters I wrote this a little over three years ago
... a classic, Smoke. Still admiring the restraint in that piece.
... another fantastic piece of fictional architecture: Mervyn Peake's titular Gormenghast.
I remember a journal article that was written about the need of relating literature to architectural history where fiction is a great reference point for imagining or studying architectural theory— kind of like what jmang's story points out.
Maybe we could start a architecture in fiction citation thread?
I was reading Beowulf a few months back and realized that either the English or the Danish-Scandinavians had a pretty significant concept of urban planning as illustrated by the focal point of the mead hall. Then I thought about not only the resources that went into building the hall but how it was situated. In addition, I was thinking about the amount of honey (for honey mead) such an establishment would require to keep a small town relatively drunk. I'm making the assumption that these people must have possessed some knowledge about bee husbandry and would have had to provide the bees with a source of nectar [flower agriculture].
Am wondering if the Scandinavian mead hall is purely an independent and unique archtype or if this was the imagination of the presumably English writer whose own environment was heavily influenced by Roman planning.
the tesseract house by robert heinlein was mentioned in undergrad 1 year theory. great writer.
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