Poetics in architecture - Leon van Schaik

Can architecture directly engage with the inner experience of people? Does it have a universal or spiritual content? When Bachelard wrote the Poetics of Space, he showed how poetry connected the observations of the poet, informed by the full tradition of poetry, with the deeply held experience of the reader.

Today the desire and need for human connection has become pressing, as very little architecture seeks to transcend the polarity of specialist knowledge and the continuum of human knowledge. Whereas the now main–stream high–tech architects seek technical refinement, the younger avant–garde look to procedural models with an emphasis on diagramming and mapping.

By focusing on a theme that concentrates on the essence of meaning of architecture rather than its surface appearance, this title of Architectural Design brings to gether a fascinating and diverse group of architects and theoreticians from all over the world.