Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWhat if architectural creativity is not only grounded in knowledge and skill but equally in a state of mind, a mood? Improbable though the suggestion may be, this original and marvelously well-studied book shows that from the 19th century onward boredom became a force that focused concentration and compelled experimentation. * David Leatherbarrow, University of Pennsylvania, USA *
A fascinating exploration of boredom that builds on 19th-century literary narratives to understand its contemporary spatial manifestations. Parreno meanders through a multitude of boredoms, from the domestic to the monumentally bureaucratic, and from the modern generic to endlessly varied imagery—revealing unexpectedly reassuring aspects of boredom in the process. * Lara Schrijver, University of Antwerp, Belgium *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Foreword by Iain Borden Acknowledgements Introduction: Boredom as Architecture 1. A Component of Modernity
Differential Distances 2. Fascination and Aversion 3. Søren Kierkegaard’s Babylonian Tower 4. Catherine Gore and Charles Dickens: Idle Restlessness/Restless Idleness 5. Blunting and Jading 6. Coney Island, Misleading Structures
Circular Trajectories 7. A Unity of Disarray 8. Martin Heidegger’s Urge to Be at Home 9. Oran, the Capital of Boredom 10. International Style Confusions: Sigfried Giedion 11. Los Angeles, Flat Enough
Extended Thresholds 12. Potential Architectures 13. Andrew Benjamin’s Antithesis to Boredom 14. Boredom in
Domus 15. Servitude and Liberalism: Russell Kirk 16. Charles Jencks, Rem Koolhaas, and the Generic 17. Jorge Silvetti and Sylvia Lavin: Unamused Muses and Lying Fallow Epilogue: Architectures of Boredom Bibliography Index
