Imagination and Imagery in Architecture

All artistic and architectural effects are evoked, mediated and
experienced through poeticised images. These images are embodied
and lived experiences that take place in ?the flesh of the
world', becoming part of us, at the same time that we unconsciously
project aspects of ourselves on to a conceived space, object or
event. Artistic images have a life and reality of their own and
they develop through unexpected associations rather than rational
and causal logic. Images are usually thought of as retinal pictures
but profound poetic images are multi-sensory and they address us in
an embodied and emotive manner.

Architecture is usually analysed and taught as a discipline that
articulates space and geometry, but the mental impact of
architecture arises significantly from its image quality that
integrates the various aspects and dimensions of experience into a
singular, internalised and remembered entity. The material reality
is fused with our mental and imaginative realm.

The book is organised into five main parts that look at in turn:
the image in contemporary culture; language, thought and the image;
the many faces of the image; the poetic image; and finally the
architectural image. The Embodied Image is illustrated with
over sixty images in pairs, which are diverse in subject. They
range from scientific images to historic artistic and architectural
masterpieces. Artworks span Michelangelo and Vermeer to Gordon
Matta-Clark and architecture takes in Modern Masters such as Mies
van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto, as well as significant
contemporary works by Steven Holl and Daniel Libeskind.