Semiotext(e) Architecture [Paperback]

Hrazten Zeitlian (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Semiotext (E) | Publication Date: January 1, 1992

This three-foot, in-your-face, on-your-lap monster belongs on every five-foot shelf. Feisty and defiant designs. Complex texts struggling with architectures intended to drag you into a visual and conceptual maelstrom. Brian Boigon, Atom Egoyan, Felix Guattari, Arthur Kroker, Catherine Ingraham, and others, in a volume too big to open in most city apartments.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Semiotext(e) (January 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0936756845
• ISBN-13: 978-0936756844
• Product Dimensions: 17 x 11 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,311,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange silence here on this Semiotext(e) book, January 16, 2009

By 

Michael A. Duvernois (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Semiotext(e) Architecture (Paperback)

Many of the other Semiotext(e) volumes were quite popular and generated a lot of interest. For some reason this one has almost disappeared. There are inexpensive used copies available, but nothing in the way of a description.

Let me try to fix that somewhat...

The book is a collection of photographic images, popular culture images, video stills, text, typography, and architectural drawings. They're heavily layered together which builds excitement and energy, but alas, reduces readability. The fragments are meant to be reassembled by the reader/viewer with many possible meanings or interpretations.

The organizing theme of architecture doesn't disappear too far below the surface though. There are essays on windows, lighting, shadows, and our own personal space.

It's an interesting, unusual, and unusually size book that any Semiotext(e) would appreciate. For the rest, it's an unusual attempt at non-hierarchical cultural re-appropriation of architecture. (Or something close to that.)