Built upon Love: Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics

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Alberto Pérez-Gómez (Saidye Rosner BronfmanProfessor Director of the History and Theory of Architecture Program, McGill University)

Built upon Love

Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics

Alberto Pérez-Gómez (Saidye Rosner BronfmanProfessor Director of the History and Theory of Architecture Program, McGill University)

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English

Massachusetts Inst of Tec
15 February 2008

Architecture; Theory of architecture

Series: Built upon Love

A vision of architecture that transcends concerns of form and function and finds the connections between the architect's wish to design a beautiful world and architecture's imperative to provide a better place for society.

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 Perez-G mez, built upon love. Modernity has rightly rejected past architectural excesses, but, Perez-G mez 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 Love Perez-G mez 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. Perez-G mez 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 philia in modernist architectural theory. Finally, he uncovers connections between ethics and poetics, describing a contemporary practice of architecture under the sign of love, incorporating both eros and philia.

By: Alberto Pérez-Gómez (Saidye Rosner BronfmanProfessor Director of the History and Theory of Architecture Program McGill University)
Imprint: Massachusetts Inst of Tec
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 363g
ISBN: 9780262662055
ISBN 10: 0262662051
Series: Built upon Love
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 15 February 2008
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Alberto Perez-Gomez is Saidye Rosner Bronfman Professor of the History of Architecture at McGill University. He is the author of Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science (MIT Press, 1983) and (with Louise Pelletier) Architecural Representation and the Perspective Hinge (MIT Press, 1997).

Reviews for Built upon Love: Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics

It is as if the author has created a gathering of characters from history (Ficino, Vico, Piranesi, and others who advocated a poetic vision of architecture) outside of time. The book's riveting moments stem from the author's intimate rapport with them.-Canadian Architect