Philosophy exercises a massive influence on contemporary architectural culture and the understanding of the built environment. Discussions of architects and architectural academics are heavily loaded with theoretical ideas, concepts and views imported from the works of philosophers. At the same time this architectural employment of philosophy rarely goes beyond the tendency to mine philosophical works for ideas, words and phrases and use them, often without much understanding, in order to promote architectural agendas and embellish theoretical claims made by architects and academics.

The book presents the history of this phenomenon for the past 100 years. It describes and analyses numerous, often funny, entertaining as well as embarrassing, examples of false intellectual pretence and pompous but incompetent philosophical posturing by prominent architects and architectural academics of the era and their efforts to bamboozle readers, colleagues and the general public. The book presents a powerful criticism of modernist views on architecture and argues that the rise of obfuscation and philosophical posturing among architects and architectural academics is a defensive strategy intended to draw attention away from the failure of Modernism in architecture.

About the Author

Branko Mitrovic received his PhDs both in Architecture and Philosophy, and he works and publishes in both fields. He is employed as the professor of architectural history and theory at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. He is the author (or co-author) of eight other books and has been the recipient of the Humboldt Research Award.

Book Information
ISBN 9781954081451
Author Branko Mitrovic
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Oro Editions
Publisher Oro Editions
Weight(grams) 258g