Drawing Apocalypse: Architecture and the Specter of Nuclear Annihilation

A timely and original study of speculative and imaginary architectural works created in response to nuclear apocalyptic culture in the US during the Cold War and beyond.

What does it mean to imagine the future when the future itself is at stake? In Drawing Apocalypse, Eliyahu Keller brings together the work of three visionary architects—Paolo Soleri, Raimund Abraham, and Lebbeus Woods to address this urgent and calamitous question. These architects, who rarely built actual structures, responded to the nuclear age in different ways: through radical visions of cities, poetic meditations on the idea of house, or revolutionary science fiction narratives that challenge the social and political role of architecture. Keller situates their work within a constellation of historical events, strategic policies, cultural currents, and artifacts that defined the nuclear age.

Drawing Apocalypse also explores the nuclear age’s lingering impact on our own contemporary condition and on how we imagine the future. Bringing together architectural history and theory with Cold War history, cultural studies, and philosophy, the author proposes a new way to think about the relationship between architecture and crisis, and draws parallels between the history of nuclear fears, the present climate crisis, and contemporary technological anxieties. As such, it speaks to a global audience of scholars, designers, and cultural readers who are interested in thinking critically about the connection between imagination, architecture, and technology in the face of unprecedented challenges.