The work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari has been inspirational for architects and architectural theorists in recent years.

Architecture Theory is a comprehensive and groundbreaking one volume overview of, and introduction to, contemporary critical discourse in architecture. In bringing critical theory and Continental philosophy to bear upon architecture, it provides a solid framework for a fully up-to-date theory of architecture, one that reflects the latest developments and concerns. The book is divided into four sections—groundwork; constructing the "individual"; pluralities; instrumentality—each covering a core theme in contemporary architecture theory. In each section an introductory essay by Andrew Ballantyne provides valuable (...) context, exposition, and analysis. This is followed by a selection of writings on architecture and other related cultural concerns from major contemporary thinkers, including Zvizvek, Irigaray, Lefebvre, Lyotard, Kristeva, Nancy, Virilio, Deleuze, and Negri. (shrink)

Architecture as Experience investigates the perception and appropriation of places across intervals of time and culture. The particular concern of the volume is to bring together fresh empirical research and animate it through contact with theoretical sophistication, without overwhelming the material. The chapters establish the continuity of a particular physical object and show it in at least two alternative historical perspectives, in which recognisable features are shown in different lights. The results are often surprising, inverting the common idea of a (...) historic place as having an enduring meaning. This book shows the insight that can be gained from learning about earlier constructions of meaning which have been derived from the same buildings that stand before us today. (shrink)

What is Architecture? presents a range of understandings and responses to architecture, from architects, philosophers and users of buildings.