Lol,Thats 'heidegger' sweetie.

Try reading "In Being and Time" .

wats that about?

Don't read Being and Time. If you want to see connections between Heidegger and architecture read "The Ethical Function of Architecture" by Karsten Harries, and "Poetry Language Thought" by Heidegger. PLT is a compilation of some of Heidegger's later essays on art, of which you should read "Building Dwelling Thinking" and "The Origin of the Work of Art."

I'm not sure that this will give you a direct connection to "architectural movements today" but it is very important in understanding the importance of architecture and leads implicitly into discussion about deep ecology and I guess in a lesser sense sustainability. Enjoy. Skip Sein und Zeit...too hard and not immediately apparent what the relevance might be to architecture.

I saw a book on Architecture as a tool of propaganda in today's society... shall post it's title later - i got it written down in my sketchbook somewhere.... errr guess that deems this post irrelevant... but yeah what can you do...

If you want to understand cultural differences, meaning, etymology and ontology read Heidegger's On The Way To Language.

Be aware, this is hardcore existentialism. It might have unpleasant echoes of the 1960s. For best results take stoically with lightly deconstructed post-modern super-relativism.

Do not attempt to read this book in one sitting.

Try Fredrich Jameson - “Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of
Late Capitalism” and his critique of portman's Bonaventure Hotel.

To paraphrase the great Mark Cousins on Architects and Foucault:

"Oft quoted.
Seldom read.
Never understood."

The best advice for architects is to read philosophy prodigiously, and then try not to use it at all.

This book is a great tome on mimesis in architecture, by the renowned philospher Arbogast.

wow, and i don't know why but the cover reminds me of complexity and contradiction

more elephant buildings

thanks to everyone who responded

soulikeit>> are there any books on philosophy that have a direct connection to architectural movements today?


The best approach is to read the whole history of architecture than philosophical books, think for yourself what role architecture must play and formulate your own philosophy.

Forgive my descent from the Ivory Tower, but I can't think of a single building that tangibly applies the ideas of Heidegger. He's really quite useless if you want to figure out how to design.

I would suggest these books, which, while not the high theoretical maunderings of philosophers, provide contemporarily applicable thoughts on designing:

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs (because so many architects have no idea what the effects of their giant, blank facades and barren plazas have on urban life.)

Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough, or more broadly, Natural Capitalism, Paul Hawken et al (for theories, reasons and ideas about acheiving environmental sustainability)

Surface Architecture, by David Leatherbarrow (theories about how facades have developed historically and how they can be articulated in contemporary buildings)

Design Like You Give a Damn, Cameron Sinclair et al (a manifesto for architecture that has a real impact on the lives of those who need it most.) This will be out next month, I believe. Good Deeds, Good Design by Bryan Bell is the next best thing.

I recently read the Edifice Complex by Deyan Sudjic. It isn't centered on how to design, or philosophy, but talks instead about the clients of architects, and what they see in architecture and how they can use it. This means it encapsulates Hitler/Spear etc. it even talks about contemporary projects aswell. it isn't an easy read, but very insightful into the use of architecture as propoganda.

Read Bernard Cache's "Earth Moves" and Manuel de Landa's "War in the age of intelligent machines" or "A thousand years of nonlinear history". Cache is the principal of Objectile and was one of Deleuze's favourite students. de Landa is also post-deleuzian, and actually a philosopher, while Cache is an architect-economist-philospher. He also makes nice research in CAD-CAM and geometry-topology.

I would start with a text by Neil Leich: Forget Heidegger.
other texts by him.

And than Deleuze, Baudrillard, De Landa, Virillio.

Deleuze is after all what all of the hot shots are talking about.
for instance Jean Nouvel talks Jean Baoudrillard
FOA is Deleuze
etc.

none of it has a direct relationship to architecture today (or yesterday). If anyone tells you different, it's just more bs.

well it does if you belive it does.

you can make architecture without this stuff, but can you think architecture without it?

all things are related in the end.
it is fun but not to take it 100% seriously ()50% is good enough.

he-he.

yeah, there is, imho, a difference between 'theory' and 'ideas'. All good designs (art, graphics, architecture, etc.) need good ideas to be great creations.

However, I don't buy that memorizing Delueze will help make you a better designer. Everytyhing you read, see, think or feel will affect your designs, of course, so nothing, in that light, is irrelevant. I just hate that it's such a priority in school. No client will listen to that bs, but they do want to hear good ideas and inspiring thoughts.

not a priority in my school.