Sylvain de Bleeckere - Narrative Architecture: A Designers Story

Narrative Architectureexplores the postmodern concept of narrative architecture from four perspectives: thinking, imagining, educating, and designing, to give you an original view on our postmodern era and architectural culture. Authors Sylvain De Bleeckere and Sebastiaan Gerards outline the ideas of thinkers, such as Edmund Husserl, Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, and Peter Sloterdijk, and explore important work of famous architects, such as Daniel Libeskind and Frank Gehry, as well as rather underestimated architects like Gnter Behnisch and Sep Ruf. With more than 100 black and white images this book will help you to adopt the design method in your own work.

Sylvain De Bleeckere, prof. em. dr. phil., worked as assistant professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Hasselt University in Flanders (Belgium). He was responsible for the graduate seminar Culture and was a leading member of the research group ArcK. Cross-fertilization between the design studio and research activities is central to his work. Since 1977, Sylvain De Bleeckere has continuously published about the postmodern philosophy of culture in relation to democracy, architecture, and cinematography.

Sebastiaan Gerardsholds a Masters degree in Architecture (Hasselt University, 2010) and Arts and Heritage (Maastricht University, 2012). Since the end of 2012 he has been working as a PhD student at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Hasselt University, Belgium. The main focus of his research is the social and architectural design of multigenerational dwelling as a renewed housing concept for Flanders. A key element in his work is the design assignment multigenerational dwelling, which he organizes with Sylvain De Bleeckere at Hasselt University. Together they have developed a new collaborative educational strategy to respond to growing social and cultural complexity (in residential Flanders).

Emphasizing the centrality of both designing and listening to stories in the conception and analysis of architecture and the city today, Narrative Architectureestablishes narrative as method beyond architecture parlante. The excellent book takes the end of the metanarrative as the beginning of the multitude of openended architectural and urban narratives of designers, users, and communities.

Tilo Amhoff, University of Brighton, UK

Weaving analyses of philosophy, architecture, urban design, and popular culture, Narrative Architecture provides a valuable argument on how thinking and imagination underpin meaningful architecture.

Clifton Fordham, RA, IFMA, LEED AP

A Designers Story

Sylvain De Bleeckere and Sebastiaan Gerards

First published 2017
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2017 Taylor & Francis

The right of Sylvain De Bleeckere and Sebastiaan Gerards to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Bleeckere, Sylvain de, 1950- author. | Gerards, Sebastiaan, author.
Title: Narrative architecture: a designers story / Sylvain De Bleeckere and
Sebastiaan Gerards.
Description: New York: Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016028567| ISBN 9781138899360 (hb: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781138899421 (pb: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315707884 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Architecture, Modern20th centuryPhilosophy. |
Architecture, Modern21st centuryPhilosophy.
Classification: LCC NA680 .B538 2017 | DDC 724/.6dc23
LC record available at