Since the early 1990s, literary reflection as a component of the architectural discourse has disappeared into the background. In a favourable economic and political climate, those working within the Dutch world of architecture had plenty of other things to keep them occupied. The architectural vanguard in the Netherlands, now known as ‘SuperDutch’, scored successes without any cause for reflection.
Now that the boom of the SuperDutch era is past its peak (see OASE 67 – After the Party), encounters between different artistic disciplines are once again being employed in a process of reciprocal exchange. Literature not only provides descriptions of a reality, but also opens up new perspectives.
In this issue of OASE, areas discussed include the (auto-) biographical novel, in which highly personal descriptions and narratives challenge us to look at architecture in a different way and what literary reflection can represent for architectural practice.
OASE 70 / Architecture & Literature Reflections/Imaginations
Index OASE 70
003
Editorial
008
Total Abscence of Illusion, Unlimited Commitment
020
From the Dream of the Novel Turned to Stone to the Acknowledgment of Public Space
031
A Lifelong Limousine A discussion of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005)
037
Lived Experience, Places Read: Toward an Urban Literacy
051
Melancholy and the City A discussion of Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul: Memories of a City (2005)
056
Room within a View: A conversation on Writing and Architecture
071
Things that Pass By A discussion on Winfried Georg Sebald’s Austerlitz (2001)
077
The National Museum of Ethnology, a Dream
103
God is a House A discussion of Mark Danielewski’s Houe of Leaves (2000)
109
Leafing through Space
123
I Wrap Myself in this Town A discussion of György Konrad’s The Town Planner (1977)
129
Kan mann in Hoyerswerda küssen?’ Franziska Linkerhand (1973), an architectural novel by Brigitte Reimann
Colophon
- Core editors
- Christoph Grafe, Madeleine Maaskant, Klaske Havik
- Editors
- Tom Avermaete, Pnina Avidar, Like Bijlsma, Filip Geerts, Christoph Grafe, Klaske Havik, Johan Lagae, Madeleine Maaskant, David Mulder, Marc Schoonderbeek, Lara Schrijver, Mechthild Stuhlmacher
- Design
- Karel Martens, Louise Dossing, Susanne Stetzer, Werkplaats Typografie