Boredom, Architecture, and Spatial Experience

Boredom is a ubiquitous feature of modern life, and this book argues that it shares an intimate relationship with architecture. It reconstructs a series of episodes in architectural history to survey how boredom became a normalized component of the everyday, how it infiltrated into the production and reception of architecture, and how it serves to diagnose moments of crisis in the continuous transformations of the built environment.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 25 August 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Boredom is a pervasive aspect of modern life, affecting everyone and serving as both a cause and an effect of modernity and the situations, spaces, and surroundings we inhabit. This book argues that boredom shares an intimate relationship with architecture, a relationship that has been largely unexplored in architectural history and theory. "Boredom, Architecture, and Spatial Experience" explores this relationship, demonstrating how an understanding of boredom offers a fresh perspective on and comprehension of the modern experience. It reconstructs a series of episodes in architectural history, spanning from the 19th century to the present, to examine how boredom became a normalized aspect of everyday life, how it permeated the production and reception of architecture, and how it serves as a diagnostic tool for moments of crisis in the continuous transformations of the built environment. The book is erudite and innovative, seamlessly blending architectural theory and philosophy with literature and psychology to make its case. It draws on archival material, scholarly sources, and thought-provoking excerpts from conversations with practitioners and thinkers, including Charles Jencks, Rem Koolhaas, Sylvia Lavin, and Jorge Silvetti, to reveal the complexity and significance of boredom in architecture.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350213647