Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment

by Henri Lefebvre, Robert Bononno (Translator), Lukasz Stanek (Editor)

Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment is the first publication in any language of the only book devoted to architecture by Henri Lefebvre. Written in 1973 but only recently discovered in a private archive, this work extends Lefebvre’s influential theory of urban space to the question of architecture. Taking the practices and perspective of habitation as his starting place, Lefebvre redefines architecture as a mode of imagination rather than a specialized process or a collection of monuments. He calls for an architecture of jouissance—of pleasure or enjoyment—centered on the body and its rhythms and based on the possibilities of the senses.
Examining architectural examples from the Renaissance to the postwar period, Lefebvre investigates the bodily pleasures of moving in and around buildings and monuments, urban spaces, and gardens and landscapes. He argues that areas dedicated to enjoyment, sensuality, and desire are important sites for a society passing beyond industrial modernization.
Lefebvre’s theories on space and urbanization fundamentally reshaped the way we understand cities. Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment promises a similar impact on how we think about, and live within, architecture.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Sociology, Theory

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Henri Lefebvre was a French sociologist, Marxist intellectual, and philosopher, best known for pioneering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of social space, and for his work on dialectics, alienation, and criticism of Stalinism, existentialism, and structuralism.

In his prolific career, Lefebvre wrote more than sixty books and three hundred articles. He founded or took part in the founding of several intellectual and academic journals such as Philosophies, La Revue Marxiste, Arguments, Socialisme et Barbarie, Espaces et Sociétés.

Lefebvre died in 1991. In his obituary, Radical Philosophy magazine honored his long and complex career and influence:
the most prolific of French Marxist intellectuals, died during the night of 28–29 June 1991, less than a fortnight after his ninetieth birthday. During his long career, his work has gone in and out of fashion several times, and has influenced the development not only of philosophy but also of sociology, geography, political science and literary criticism.

Reviews

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Introduction by Łukasz Stanek is almost as good as the book!

[Jing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must read: Intro, chapter5, 8…

An interpretive framework — ‘Everyday Life–Satisfaction–General Malaise’ — is constructed to explain the secret of attaining enjoyment (drawing from Nietzsche, to be verified).

Lefebvre’s idea of ‘adaptation and readaptation of the real/everyday’ clearly seems to take its cue from Nietzsche’s method, which is surprisingly close to what contemporary anthropology says about ‘surroundings.’ Both, in a way, can be seen as a kind of compensation in today’s network society.

Thanks to Lefebvre, I was able to grasp the touching power of Nietzsche’s thought.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Maybe 3.5 stars?) This is French philosophy with all its dense academic trappings. But if you can do the work, Lefebvre presents a pretty sui generis meditation on the title subject. Did he need to exhaust this many words to accomplish it? Je ne suis pas sûr, mes amis...