Architecture and the Burdens of Linearity

by Catherine Ingraham

In this suggestive inquiry into the operations of linearity in architectural theory and practice, Catherine Ingraham investigates the line as both a conceptual and literal force in architecture. She approaches her subject from philosophical, theoretical, practical, and historical points of view, finding the following points of architecture’s relation to property, politics, and economy; architecture’s relation to propriety and the need to keep things "in line"; and architecture’s relation to the proper name, human identity, object identity, and spatial location and demarcation.

In this engaging discussion, Ingraham considers maps, architectural plans, the laws of geometry, systems of architectural knowledge, and mythologies of architectural origin in work by Le Corbusier, Vitruvius, Alberti, Tafuri, Derrida, Lévi-Strauss, Shakespeare, Lacan, Deleuze, Rilke, and Stendhal. Entering the current complex debates about the relation between theory and practice in architecture, the author also addresses themes in psychoanalytic criticism, poststructural theory, and feminist criticism. Her examination thus moves beyond architecture and its literal structures to the notion of epistemological structure that architecture as a discipline and practice upholds and promotes.

Theoretical Perspectives in Architectural History and Criticism Series

Mark Rakatansky, Editor

Genres: Architecture

211 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 1998

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my life! it made me understand drawing in a new way- the materiality of te line, the substance of drawing... and mademe realisewhy you draw in different ways and the signifcance of each mark you make... also made me learn to read theory- at the time i read it some of the concepts were new and hard to understand... but really worth perseveering!

[Antidote · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Some insightful sections and some I skim read and may return to at a (much) later date to ponder over, but a definite must if you're topic is drawing, representation, sexualised space..