Francesco Proto – författare

Marginalized due to the deployment of both a highly specialized jargon and a novel stylistic approach meant to upset established norms and conventions, Baudrillard''s thought has suffered from the lack of an accessible, consistent and comprehensive exposition able to make it relevant to diverse contemporary disciplines. As a result, its impact on architecture has always been confined to academia. By presenting an introductory but in-depth formalization of Baudrillard''s interest in architecture and related fields, this book makes intelligible his philosophical premises thus showing, through the prism of architecture, their relevance and persuasiveness today. Key concepts such as the object system, the code, simulation, hyperreality and precession, to name a few, are addressed in the light of the specially reconceptualized key construct of ambience, thus emphasizing how the mutual concerns of architecture, urban studies and cultural studies provide a fertile ground for debate.Such an approach, which focuses on the contradictions inherent in contemporary society from the vantage point of Baudrillard''s original involvement in architectural analysis, philosophy and criticism, is one which students, practitioners and scholars alike from as diverse disciplines as architecture, interior design and urban studies – but also fine art, anthropology, sociology, economics, human geography, social psychology and cultural studies to start with – will benefit from immensely.

Marginalized due to the deployment of both a highly specialized jargon and a novel stylistic approach meant to upset established norms and conventions, Baudrillard''s thought has suffered from the lack of an accessible, consistent and comprehensive exposition able to make it relevant to diverse contemporary disciplines. As a result, its impact on architecture has always been confined to academia. By presenting an introductory but in-depth formalization of Baudrillard''s interest in architecture and related fields, this book makes intelligible his philosophical premises thus showing, through the prism of architecture, their relevance and persuasiveness today. Key concepts such as the object system, the code, simulation, hyperreality and precession, to name a few, are addressed in the light of the specially reconceptualized key construct of ambience, thus emphasizing how the mutual concerns of architecture, urban studies and cultural studies provide a fertile ground for debate.Such an approach, which focuses on the contradictions inherent in contemporary society from the vantage point of Baudrillard''s original involvement in architectural analysis, philosophy and criticism, is one which students, practitioners and scholars alike from as diverse disciplines as architecture, interior design and urban studies – but also fine art, anthropology, sociology, economics, human geography, social psychology and cultural studies to start with – will benefit from immensely.

This book seeks to revise and revive architectural theory through psychoanalysis as well as to apply psychoanalytic theory to architecture. Its authors argue for Lacan’s central importance for a comprehensive theory of building and suggest how architectural theory might offer new resources for psychoanalytic theorists. They address both the perceived crisis in the contemporary state of architecture and architectural theory and crises in society at large, including political and economic fracture and instability and threats to mental health and well-being. It offers fresh insights to architects, architectural educators and practitioners, scholars of psychoanalysis, and anyone interested in the human condition in relation to the built environment.

This book is shortlisted for the 2025 Architectural Theory Book and Book of the Year Awards.