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Metaphor: an exploration of the metaphorical dimensions and potential of architecture
Each of these Analysing Architecture Notebooks is devoted to a particular theme in understanding the rich and varied workings of architecture. They can be thought of as addenda to the foundation volume Analysing Architecture , which first appeared in 1997 and has subsequently been enlarged in three further editions. Examining these extra themes as a series of Notebooks, rather than as additional chapters in future editions, allows greater space for more detailed exploration of a wider variety of examples, whilst avoiding the risk of the original book becoming unwieldy. Metaphor is the most powerful component of the poetry of architecture. It has been a significant factor in architecture since the earliest periods of human history, when people were finding ways to give order and meaning to the world in which we live. It is arguable that architecture began with the realisation of metaphor in physical form, and that subsequent movements – from Greek to Gothic, Renaissance to Modern, Victorian to Vernacular… – have all been driven by the emergence or rediscovery of different metaphors by which architecture might be generated.
184 pages, Hardcover
Published April 2, 2019
3 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Simon Unwin
24 books26 followersSimon Unwin is a freelance writer and lecturer based in Cardiff, UK. He is a registered architect but concentrates on writing about architecture and teaching architectural analysis and design. His publications include six books: Analysing Architecture (Routledge, London, 1997, 2003, 2009 and 2014); An Architecture Notebook: Wall (Routledge, 2000); Doorway (Routledge, 2007); Twenty-Five Buildings Every Architect Should Understand (Routledge, 2010 and 2015); Exercises in Architecture (Routledge, 2012); and The Ten Most Influential Buildings in History: Architecture's Archetypes (Routledge, 2016). These books are used in schools of architecture around the world. Analysing Architecture has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. Recently, Unwin has instigated a series of Analysing Architecture Notebooks, which currently include Metaphor (Routledge, 2019), Children as Place-Makers (Routledge, 2019), Curve (Routledge, 2019) and Shadow (Routledge, 2020).
Simon Unwin is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of Dundee, Scotland, where he was Professor from 2004 to 2009. Previously he was Senior Lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff University, Wales. He has lived in Australia as well as the UK and taught or lectured in Israel, the USA, China, Malaysia, India, Sweden, Turkey and at other schools of architecture in the UK and Europe.
Contact: info@simonunwin.com
Simon Unwin is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of Dundee, Scotland, where he was Professor from 2004 to 2009. Previously he was Senior Lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff University, Wales. He has lived in Australia as well as the UK and taught or lectured in Israel, the USA, China, Malaysia, India, Sweden, Turkey and at other schools of architecture in the UK and Europe.
Contact: info@simonunwin.com
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 18, 2020
Simon Unwin’s book is clear and compelling. It makes a strong case from the first page that architectural metaphors are primal and ubiquitous, regardless of the extent to which we are aware of their presence.
Unwin calls metaphor a ‘cornerstone of creativity’ and notes that “all architecture is, metaphorically, a shadow cast on [Plato’s] cave wall.” He explores the relationship between architectural images, words, and ideas, investigating both image-related metaphors, and some of the deeper conceptual-metaphors.
His review is more than superficial, as he looks beyond simple façade assessment, and applies the metaphors to the plans, sections and functions of the buildings as they relate to each metaphor. With copious examples, he traces our evolution, as it were, from primal metaphors, (such as cave-womb, totem-presence and colonnade-forest) through to more modern ideas of deconstruction and DNA metaphors. Several of the metaphors are demonstrated with an analysis of a single, specific, piece of architecture to exhibit how the building can be read metaphorically, and how that ‘reading’ can be applied to other buildings. His illustrations help immensely.
I have two favourite parts from this book, which include the architectural metaphors Jung and Freud use to explain the subconscious (Jung uses a vertical-sectional analysis of upstairs-downstairs-basement, and Freud uses an essentially planometric version, moving from guarded public front door, down a hallway to the more private, secret rooms at the rear of the house (I prefer Jung’s for what it’s worth)). The second is the university exercise in which students are each given an image - a small snippet of a building’s façade - and are then asked to create a new building design from that fragment. Its purpose is to demonstrate to students that each building has embedded “design-DNA” and that designs are often minor or major replicas of that DNA, and that this regeneration has conscious or unintended consequences. (For me it triggers ideas of today’s buildings bearing strange resemblances to Frankenstein-monsters or Dolly-Sheep.)
Having read this book, I am sure to look at building details more closely, (and I will never look at front-door-pot-plants the same way again!)
Unwin calls metaphor a ‘cornerstone of creativity’ and notes that “all architecture is, metaphorically, a shadow cast on [Plato’s] cave wall.” He explores the relationship between architectural images, words, and ideas, investigating both image-related metaphors, and some of the deeper conceptual-metaphors.
His review is more than superficial, as he looks beyond simple façade assessment, and applies the metaphors to the plans, sections and functions of the buildings as they relate to each metaphor. With copious examples, he traces our evolution, as it were, from primal metaphors, (such as cave-womb, totem-presence and colonnade-forest) through to more modern ideas of deconstruction and DNA metaphors. Several of the metaphors are demonstrated with an analysis of a single, specific, piece of architecture to exhibit how the building can be read metaphorically, and how that ‘reading’ can be applied to other buildings. His illustrations help immensely.
I have two favourite parts from this book, which include the architectural metaphors Jung and Freud use to explain the subconscious (Jung uses a vertical-sectional analysis of upstairs-downstairs-basement, and Freud uses an essentially planometric version, moving from guarded public front door, down a hallway to the more private, secret rooms at the rear of the house (I prefer Jung’s for what it’s worth)). The second is the university exercise in which students are each given an image - a small snippet of a building’s façade - and are then asked to create a new building design from that fragment. Its purpose is to demonstrate to students that each building has embedded “design-DNA” and that designs are often minor or major replicas of that DNA, and that this regeneration has conscious or unintended consequences. (For me it triggers ideas of today’s buildings bearing strange resemblances to Frankenstein-monsters or Dolly-Sheep.)
Having read this book, I am sure to look at building details more closely, (and I will never look at front-door-pot-plants the same way again!)
June 5, 2024
What a brilliant book I found unexpectedly at little lime house library (it’s something the locals have built where anyone can leave a book and anyone can take it). I just picked it up and read through it without knowing anything about the author or much about architecture. It’s clear, compelling and concise from start to end.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews