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Horror in Architecture
This book looks at the idea of horror and its analogues in architecture. In these, normal compositions become extra limbs appear, holes open where they should not, individual objects are doubled or split or perversely occupied.
Horrifying buildings re-imagine the possibilities of architectural language, shifting from "natural" norms to other, more rarified and exciting options. They define an expanded aesthetic field that marries the beautiful to the distorted, the awkward, the manifold, and the indeterminate.
Through an investigation that spans architecture, art, and literature, this study attempts to limn horror through its shifting forms and meanings--and to identify a creeping unease that lingers at the very center of the modern project.
Horror in Architecture may be read as a history, as an alternative to the classic canon of good and proper architectures, or as a sly manifesto for a new approach to the design of the built environment--one that encourages a playful subversion of conventions.
To capture horror in its many guises, this study is presented in a unique manner. An introductory essay describes the historical fortunes of horror as an aesthetic idea, from Roman antiquity to the pulp films and novels of the present day. Here, the authors put forward a new theory of the sources and effects of horror in modernity and in modern architecture. This is followed by case studies of types, linking classic tropes (clones, doubles, hybrids, psychotics and the undead) to specific buildings and architectural theories.
As a result, this study may be read in a number of different ways. It may be consumed as a total theoretical piece, from start to finish. Or it may provide a series of more casual readings, in the various chapters and brief presentations of the works of individual architects or buildings.
Horrifying buildings re-imagine the possibilities of architectural language, shifting from "natural" norms to other, more rarified and exciting options. They define an expanded aesthetic field that marries the beautiful to the distorted, the awkward, the manifold, and the indeterminate.
Through an investigation that spans architecture, art, and literature, this study attempts to limn horror through its shifting forms and meanings--and to identify a creeping unease that lingers at the very center of the modern project.
Horror in Architecture may be read as a history, as an alternative to the classic canon of good and proper architectures, or as a sly manifesto for a new approach to the design of the built environment--one that encourages a playful subversion of conventions.
To capture horror in its many guises, this study is presented in a unique manner. An introductory essay describes the historical fortunes of horror as an aesthetic idea, from Roman antiquity to the pulp films and novels of the present day. Here, the authors put forward a new theory of the sources and effects of horror in modernity and in modern architecture. This is followed by case studies of types, linking classic tropes (clones, doubles, hybrids, psychotics and the undead) to specific buildings and architectural theories.
As a result, this study may be read in a number of different ways. It may be consumed as a total theoretical piece, from start to finish. Or it may provide a series of more casual readings, in the various chapters and brief presentations of the works of individual architects or buildings.
225 pages, Hardcover
First published March 12, 2013
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1006 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
October 24, 2021
An interesting book, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone without an existing grounding in architectural history, theory and criticism. My own failing here was disregarding the title, something I only realised I’d done when I actually started reading the book: I wanted more architecture in horror and less horror in architecture. I’d anticipated at least some analysis of the ways in which buildings are used in horror films/lit, but Comaroff and Ker-Shing are concerned with the things we (typically) find visually or viscerally horrifying and how analogues of these can manifest in architecture. As a result, a lot of it flew over my head, especially where the approaches and specific buildings mentioned are not illustrated (a lot of googling was needed to make many of the arguments comprehensible to me). It’s nevertheless packed with fascinating observations and turns of phrase, my personal highlight being the description of the polymorphic body in art/film as ‘a disgusting little society’.
TinyLetter | Linktree
TinyLetter | Linktree
July 22, 2015
A good resource, but burdened by the amateurish taking up of theory and a lot of very sloppy mistakes.
July 12, 2017
Best Thing about this book is the categories that the authors developed. Very interesting way of dissecting the "genre" and framing the discussion. However, i am a bit underwhelmed by the architectures they put forward. I was certainly not expecting to spending most of my time reading about the same old examples of Venturi, Koolhaas, Chicago Tribune competition etc...it feels like a re-wrapped architecture 101. I was hoping for a more varied and surprising iconography, not yet another re-reading of the same 15 projects we've been talking about for the last 200 years. I appreciate the intellectual exercise, but the title is a bit...misleading or over-hyping the content.
June 8, 2024
Despite the strong premise and a number of unique insights, the lack of structure (pun) makes this book an aimless slog. I'm perfectly happy with a book that doesn't have a central thesis from front to back, but Horror in Architecture lacks a shared argument between two adjacent paragraphs. The general format is:
1a a brief outline of a common horror trope (The Exquisite Corpse)
1b a brief consideration of how this trope can manifest in architecture (stylistic disjuncture)
2a a paragraph about the trope in a specific work of horror (David Cronenberg's Videodrome)
2b a paragraph about a building which may or may not be loosely related to 2a (bulbous projections in Michel de Klerk's post office in Amsterdam)
2c a sprinkling of commentary on late stage capitalism for some reason ("The dissociated, anthropogenic character of such environments veers close to dystopia," "It embodies negative freedom without a check, a libertarian Babel in which all remaining vestiges of the social are removed")
3 repeat 2 for the length of the chapter
I enjoyed learning about unique buildings and their commonalities with horror films, but what I really want to know is why these ideas appear in architecture. Did the designers consider the strangeness and 'horror' inherent in their work? Should they? Are we, as building goers, supposed to feel a certain 'horror' and uneasiness when viewing or inhabiting these buildings? Does it play on our subconscious psyche in deleterious ways? Is this all just an arbitrary intellectual exercise? We may never know.
The content in this book would be better suited to a website: Each horror trope would get its own page, and each page would be a list of buildings that exemplify that trope, accompanied by multiple pretty photos. Sadly, the photos in the book (I read the most recent reprint "The Reanimated Edition") are all low quality black and white photos, and half the buildings don't get photos at all).
I wanted to love this book, but it just didn't come together for me. 2.5/5
1a a brief outline of a common horror trope (The Exquisite Corpse)
1b a brief consideration of how this trope can manifest in architecture (stylistic disjuncture)
2a a paragraph about the trope in a specific work of horror (David Cronenberg's Videodrome)
2b a paragraph about a building which may or may not be loosely related to 2a (bulbous projections in Michel de Klerk's post office in Amsterdam)
2c a sprinkling of commentary on late stage capitalism for some reason ("The dissociated, anthropogenic character of such environments veers close to dystopia," "It embodies negative freedom without a check, a libertarian Babel in which all remaining vestiges of the social are removed")
3 repeat 2 for the length of the chapter
I enjoyed learning about unique buildings and their commonalities with horror films, but what I really want to know is why these ideas appear in architecture. Did the designers consider the strangeness and 'horror' inherent in their work? Should they? Are we, as building goers, supposed to feel a certain 'horror' and uneasiness when viewing or inhabiting these buildings? Does it play on our subconscious psyche in deleterious ways? Is this all just an arbitrary intellectual exercise? We may never know.
The content in this book would be better suited to a website: Each horror trope would get its own page, and each page would be a list of buildings that exemplify that trope, accompanied by multiple pretty photos. Sadly, the photos in the book (I read the most recent reprint "The Reanimated Edition") are all low quality black and white photos, and half the buildings don't get photos at all).
I wanted to love this book, but it just didn't come together for me. 2.5/5
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August 4, 2022Ridiculously fun.
March 5, 2018
Difficult read, but interesting metaphors in the comparison of elements of horror and how it translates and is reflected in architecture.
February 1, 2021
cool study of the fascination bound into the horrors of architectural structures and their representation of larger cultural discourses & anxieties.
3.5/5
3.5/5
December 10, 2025
A curious and lazy mashing together of literary theory and architecture.
Don't get me wrong, I love to look at buildings. But the authors are trying really hard to force-feed the idea that so-and-so architecture is 'sinister' and 'horrifying'.
Lots of connections just don't make sense - till the point I am at, the flow is basically: 'here is a potentially horrifying idea -> here is a movie or book where it was deployed -> and here you go a building that superficially uses that idea'.
For example, in the chapter on clones and doubles, randomly some movies were thrown in where twins were used to 'sinister' effect (and the Winklevoss twins from social network were thrown in too ... but they are ... real people ... just existing??), and then, boom - a building that has two sections that look similar or identical. WHAT is the connection here? And why are you repeatedly trying to tell me the building "looks" sinister? Per what standards? It just looks bland or cool as hell to me.
And - I am not the only litmus test here: technically, you should have a long explanation of what it is in the building that causes horror, right? What do people say or feel about it? What does the lighting look like, inside? How are the temperatures in there, the acoustics? What do objects look like in scale next to it? Is the building horrific purely based on how it "violates" some dusty white man's idea of "unity" and "beauty", or is there literally anything more to it? The answers to ALL of these questions are missing.
Till the point I have read, the only truly scary architectural plans I have seen in this book are those cookie cutter houses that get endlessly repeated, Vivarium style. There I can understand the terror - endless repetition, evoking feelings of being trapped alone amongst strangers.
The standards of architecture are *super* Euro-centric, communal living buildings are called "horror-inducing" (and I just don't understand why, they looked fun and homely to me??), and jesus, I'm only just starting the second chapter (exquisite corpse), but I am sure there's going to be a lot of shoddy analysis in there talking about how "a grotesque limb or a missing body part 'induces' horror" and then boom-"here's a building (superficially) mimicking that."
I am so sorry I am incensed in this review. I read glowing recommendations of this on Tumblr, and I am mad at myself for trusting them. Waste of my time. I might slog on a little more because I genuinely *do* love looking at buildings and there are some interesting recommendations in here, but theoretically, this book is extremely weakly put together.
Don't get me wrong, I love to look at buildings. But the authors are trying really hard to force-feed the idea that so-and-so architecture is 'sinister' and 'horrifying'.
Lots of connections just don't make sense - till the point I am at, the flow is basically: 'here is a potentially horrifying idea -> here is a movie or book where it was deployed -> and here you go a building that superficially uses that idea'.
For example, in the chapter on clones and doubles, randomly some movies were thrown in where twins were used to 'sinister' effect (and the Winklevoss twins from social network were thrown in too ... but they are ... real people ... just existing??), and then, boom - a building that has two sections that look similar or identical. WHAT is the connection here? And why are you repeatedly trying to tell me the building "looks" sinister? Per what standards? It just looks bland or cool as hell to me.
And - I am not the only litmus test here: technically, you should have a long explanation of what it is in the building that causes horror, right? What do people say or feel about it? What does the lighting look like, inside? How are the temperatures in there, the acoustics? What do objects look like in scale next to it? Is the building horrific purely based on how it "violates" some dusty white man's idea of "unity" and "beauty", or is there literally anything more to it? The answers to ALL of these questions are missing.
Till the point I have read, the only truly scary architectural plans I have seen in this book are those cookie cutter houses that get endlessly repeated, Vivarium style. There I can understand the terror - endless repetition, evoking feelings of being trapped alone amongst strangers.
The standards of architecture are *super* Euro-centric, communal living buildings are called "horror-inducing" (and I just don't understand why, they looked fun and homely to me??), and jesus, I'm only just starting the second chapter (exquisite corpse), but I am sure there's going to be a lot of shoddy analysis in there talking about how "a grotesque limb or a missing body part 'induces' horror" and then boom-"here's a building (superficially) mimicking that."
I am so sorry I am incensed in this review. I read glowing recommendations of this on Tumblr, and I am mad at myself for trusting them. Waste of my time. I might slog on a little more because I genuinely *do* love looking at buildings and there are some interesting recommendations in here, but theoretically, this book is extremely weakly put together.
August 1, 2025
Very perplexing book. I believe that applying a radical lens to a field always proves interesting, but I also think these authors have scribbled a spooky monster on the glass and then gasp every time they look through it. And oh, what's that smudge? Really weird approaches to disability and race!
There's some generally interesting content here, but much of it boils down to examining some sort of physical disability (or other quirk in human development), then comparing that to tropes (or oddities) in architecture. At times "horror" feels more like euphemism. There's even interesting meat in there. In "Distortion: Deformity and Disproportion" (oof), they discuss how certain "deformed" buildings are a reaction to surroundings and the structure of cities. If you take that idea back to the original idea of disability, there's maybe a nugget that could be explored. Admittedly, I dunno if I'd want these authors to investigate that: their strength is obviously on the architectural side.
Furthermore, there's a lot of horror that's abstracted further from the human form. Chapters like "Incontinent Object" (probably my favorite section still) and "Trojan Horse" flirt with this idea, but tend to still drift towards human-centered ideas, which inevitably feel weird. There's also a lot of horror explicitly about architecture that could be interrogated here.
Idk this vexed me. It's still compelling in parts but yikes.
There's some generally interesting content here, but much of it boils down to examining some sort of physical disability (or other quirk in human development), then comparing that to tropes (or oddities) in architecture. At times "horror" feels more like euphemism. There's even interesting meat in there. In "Distortion: Deformity and Disproportion" (oof), they discuss how certain "deformed" buildings are a reaction to surroundings and the structure of cities. If you take that idea back to the original idea of disability, there's maybe a nugget that could be explored. Admittedly, I dunno if I'd want these authors to investigate that: their strength is obviously on the architectural side.
Furthermore, there's a lot of horror that's abstracted further from the human form. Chapters like "Incontinent Object" (probably my favorite section still) and "Trojan Horse" flirt with this idea, but tend to still drift towards human-centered ideas, which inevitably feel weird. There's also a lot of horror explicitly about architecture that could be interrogated here.
Idk this vexed me. It's still compelling in parts but yikes.
May 2, 2021
"Horror in Architecture" is a fascinating survey of spatial features (both intended and accidental) which mirror horror tropes. It's well-illustrated, and full of bibliographic notes for further reading. The book is organized by trope, with some sections faring better than others. In particular, "Incontinent Object", "Reiteration and Reflexivity," "Trojan Horse", and the first half of "Solidity & Stereotomy" are ripe with interesting examples and analysis.
The concept of the book generally outshines the reading experience. The style is academic: At its best, it wraps fascinating ideas in highbrow poetry; at its worst, it reads like a pretentious grad-student assignment. The introductory chapters in particular are over-written and skimmable.
Still, I'd easily recommend this book for creatives working on horror-related projects, for its wealth of original thinking on how we perceive spaces as uncomfortable or threatening. A cover-to-cover read is unnecessary, just hit the TOC and drop into the examples that pique your curiosity.
The concept of the book generally outshines the reading experience. The style is academic: At its best, it wraps fascinating ideas in highbrow poetry; at its worst, it reads like a pretentious grad-student assignment. The introductory chapters in particular are over-written and skimmable.
Still, I'd easily recommend this book for creatives working on horror-related projects, for its wealth of original thinking on how we perceive spaces as uncomfortable or threatening. A cover-to-cover read is unnecessary, just hit the TOC and drop into the examples that pique your curiosity.
October 12, 2024
Absolutely fantastic. I did not know what to expect when I started the book, since it combines two of my favorite topics and intuitively the combination makes sense, but it's still hard to grasp. The authors absolutely get it and manage to create a great overview over many different types of horror in architecture.
Well researched, with many pictures, a lot of references to tantalizing essays, books and fiction that shows deep immersion in the topic. The book is surprisingly succinct, saying exactly what it wants to say and no more, while remaining poetic and philosophical throughout.
Bought the physical version after I finished reading it, since I must have this in my house.
Note: I read an ebook of the Reanimated version.
Well researched, with many pictures, a lot of references to tantalizing essays, books and fiction that shows deep immersion in the topic. The book is surprisingly succinct, saying exactly what it wants to say and no more, while remaining poetic and philosophical throughout.
Bought the physical version after I finished reading it, since I must have this in my house.
Note: I read an ebook of the Reanimated version.
November 10, 2025
maybe the real architecture was the horror we made along the way….. maybe the real horror.. was the .. sighs kicks rock down street
i had fun reading this as someone who knows absolutely nothing about architecture and a little about crit theory and horror movies. even though the prose was very readable and had some good turns of phrase, sometimes i didnt really see a link between the ideas they were identifying and the examples they gave. i feel like there could have been some better ways to structure this . also missed opportunity for analysing some architecture In horror not just horror In architecture . maybe thats just the cultural studies demon in me tho
i had fun reading this as someone who knows absolutely nothing about architecture and a little about crit theory and horror movies. even though the prose was very readable and had some good turns of phrase, sometimes i didnt really see a link between the ideas they were identifying and the examples they gave. i feel like there could have been some better ways to structure this . also missed opportunity for analysing some architecture In horror not just horror In architecture . maybe thats just the cultural studies demon in me tho
May 5, 2020
Overall a good read with examples of strange and fascinating architectural projects all over the world (from ancient to contemporary times) but it glosses over them - although the usual suspects like Rem Koolhaas and Frank Gehry all make multiple appearances. The thesis puts forward how “horror” exists in architecture and how economic / capitalist strains help create these “monsters” in architecture. Fascinating idea that holds weight but some of it was glossed over.
September 12, 2019
I don't know much about architecture like actually nothing, so maybe there were mistakes i didnt notice. But coming from it knowing nothing about architecture, I found some of the points they made about horrific building, and modern architecture really interesting. Although sometimes, they did make the same points multiple times in seperate sections.
October 29, 2021
I think this is the hardest I have ever had to work to find a book. Every time I found it it either immediately got purchased before I did it, got an email from the lister after I had already purchased it saying they did not have the item in stock anymore, had a broken link to the actual listing despite displaying in search results, and more. It was highly worth it though, with an interesting study of architecture from an unusual perspective. If you want a copy enjoy your search!
August 20, 2019
A phenomenal premise, and interesting in large chunks. But the totality wasn't really quite there, and the actual production of the book was a little shoddy at times with the photographs and words not quite matching up. This was enjoyable to be sure, but I was hoping for much more.
September 17, 2024
Rating this a 4 because I can feel how passionate the authors are about this subject but emotionally for me it’s a 3 because even their passion about this frankly fascinating subject didn’t stop me from feeling a teensy bit overwhelmed and therefore bored. But that’s a me problem
April 8, 2025
A strange and brilliant book that explores horror not just as a genre, but as a natural and psychological state. It shows how fear and dread can exist in space, and how architecture can express or provoke it.
An absolute treat if you're passionate about horror and spatial design, like me.
An absolute treat if you're passionate about horror and spatial design, like me.
July 7, 2025
This book was perfectly placed between two of my hyperfixations: horror and architecture. It's a very academic work which may no be to everyone's taste, but I found this chock full of incredible ideas, delightful comparisons, and perfect examples.
September 15, 2020
Tied together so many thoughts that I have been exploring recently (!)
Definitely need to look over some chapters in more detail but absolutely perfect for where my practise is going currently ❣️
Definitely need to look over some chapters in more detail but absolutely perfect for where my practise is going currently ❣️
September 3, 2021
I am looking for a copy of this book but cannot find one ANYWHERE! For those of you who have read it where did you find it?? I would love any tips
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February 7, 2015Excellent practical introduction to the horrors that architecture gives rise to. The body and architecture is inextricably entwined and this book shows us how. Flush with examples of buildings and lots of pictures from literary correlatives -- books, film and other kinds of media.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews