The 'Poetics of Architecture' (& the architecture of poets)

Architecture is particularly fascinating amongst the forms of cultural production, in that while we may have occasion to read a poem, or choose to listen to music, or look at a painting, architecture is inescapable. It surrounds us almost every waking hour of our lives. We may wander through the woods, or across a moor or desert, but eventually we must take shelter from the sun, or from the wind, or from the rain, heat or cold. Architecture surrounds us and gives form to our lives, and in its particular relation to us, its corporeal engagement with our being in the world, there is meaning. We must, through point of necessity, give a physical form to our dwelling, a form which, once constructed, we continue to confront on a daily basis, a form which we work in and with, which we push up against and alter as our needs change, and which plays an important role in who and how we are. This is what I would like to call the ‘poetics of architecture’, the meaning that emerges from these relationships.

As an architect I aspire to think in terms of these poetics. In building a home my aim is to give physical form to someone’s life, hopefully creating a manifestation of who and how somebody wants to be.

It is for this reason that I have been interested recently in the houses of writers. The three writers that I have been examining – Martin Heidegger, Carl Jung, and Al Purdy – have all thought extensively about what it means to dwell as humans in the world. More than this, they have committed much of this thought to words on paper, and of particular interest to me, these three writers all also built their own houses thus framing their dwelling in a particular way. In studying the houses of writers I hope to reveal lessons on the poetics of architecture that may be of use to designers.

Examining each of these writers gives us a slightly different window into architecture’s engagement with our existential situation: their longing for authenticity is satisfied in different ways; their relationships with perceived ‘nature’ and with ‘world’ are different as are their relationships with the past and the future; their depictions of self differ and are sometimes implicit and sometimes quite explicit. All of this is useful for architects wishing to engage intelligently with the poetics of architecture.