{"product_id":"magic-architecture-isbn-9780262046749","title":"Magic Architecture","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe first publication of artist and architect Frederick Kiesler’s epoch-spanning history of human architecture, largely unknown but still relevant.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMagic Architecture\u003c\/i\u003e was the architect Frederick Kiesler’s most ambitious book project, an epoch-spanning history of human housing from prehistory to the atomic era, submitted to editors after World War II but left unpublished. In its holistic view of habitation through the lens of anthropology, ecology, and the life sciences, \u003ci\u003eMagic Architecture\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the most extraordinary texts on architecture written in the twentieth century, now at last published in the twenty-first. Kiesler’s exploration of the effects of modern technology in combination with the alternative epistemology of “magical” practices associated with cave drawings and the first artifacts of human industry reflects his profoundly interdisciplinary perspective on the development of art, architecture, and design.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis critical edition preserves Kiesler’s conception of the book as a neo-Vitruvian treatise divided into ten parts that narrate an alternative history and theory of architecture. Also included are more than seventy composite plate illustrations consisting of images cut and pasted from books and popular science journals, with elaborate captions, as well as Kiesler’s own line drawings made specifically for this project. The editors have reassembled the book’s text and illustrations from archival documents, supplementing them with notes that trace the copious development of the work.  Introductory essays provide an interpretation of key themes and bibliographic sources, as well as a chronological context of the architect’s research. Appendixes offer additional textual and visual material gathered by Kiesler for the project.Introduction: The Unity of Vision and Fact\u003cbr\u003ePART ONE\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1: The Eternal Preamble to Architecture\u003cbr\u003eChapter 2: Fear of the Unseen\u003cbr\u003eChapter 3: The Enigma of Death\u003cbr\u003eChapter 4: The Enigma of Birth\u003cbr\u003eChapter 5: Birth necessitates Shelter; Death inspires Architecture\u003cbr\u003eChapter 6: The Cave, first natural Shelter\u003cbr\u003eChapter 7: The Nest, first artificial Shelter\u003cbr\u003eChapter 8: The Universe as Architecture\u003cbr\u003eChapter 9: The Split in the Unity of Vision and Fact\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePART TWO ANIMAL ARCHITECTURE AND MAN’S ABILITY TO BUILD\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003eInstinct, Memory and the Drive for Invention\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1: Man’s House is Animal Architecture\u003cbr\u003eChapter 2: The Building-Instinct of Animals: the Termitary of the Termites\u003cbr\u003eChapter 3: Animal Engineering: the Dam of the Beaver\u003cbr\u003eChapter 4: Building Tools of Animals\u003cbr\u003eChapter 5: Man a Composite Animal of Building Techniques\u003cbr\u003eChapter 6: Man’s first Invention: The (first) transformation of dead material into useful tools\u003cbr\u003eChapter 7: The (second) transformation of dead material into magic tools of physical attraction\u003cbr\u003eChapter 8: The (third) transformation of dead material into magic tools of spiritual Power\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePART THREE AWARENESS OF THE MIRACULOUS\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: From Animal Housing to Magic Architecture\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1: The Birth of Magic Design\u003cbr\u003e Man discovers his capacity to convert his own body into a dream-image through make-up.\u003cbr\u003eChapter 2: Man discovers that the fingers of his hand are magic wands for the transformation of surfaces into images through the application of paint.\u003cbr\u003eChapter 3: Man discovers that by making grooves (engraving) hard stone objects held in his hand can transform soft stone surfaces into images.\u003cbr\u003eChapter 4: Discovery and Affirmation of the Superfluous\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePART FOUR ART AND THE UNKNOWN\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: The Superfluous becomes a Necessity\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1: The Meaning of Magic\u003cbr\u003eChapter 2: Man part of the Cosmos and Man apart from the Cosmos\u003cbr\u003eChapter 3: Artifacts, Symbols and Art\u003cbr\u003eChapter 4: Myth and Magic\u003cbr\u003eChapter 5: The psycho-plastic Era\u003cbr\u003eChapter 6: The ideo-plastic Era\u003cbr\u003eChapter 7: The Era of Metamorphosis\u003cbr\u003eChapter 8: The Era of Abstraction\u003cbr\u003eChapter 9: The Physio-plastic Era“Long recognized by its striking title yet virtually inaccessible, \u003ci\u003eMagic Architecture\u003c\/i\u003e is now available in a critical edition that vindicates the tremendous efforts of the two editors. Produced after many years of collaborative research, this fully illustrated edition showcases one of the most extraordinary texts in the history of architectural writing.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Dieter Bogner, founding president of the Frederick Kiesler Foundation.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What is architecture in the face of a planetary crisis? The publication of Frederick Kiesler’s legendary manuscript \u003ci\u003eMagic Architecture\u003c\/i\u003e by Spyros Papapetros and Gerd Zillner brings us the right book at the right time.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Nikolaus Hirsch, director of CIVA Brussels and editor of e-flux architecture\u003c\/b\u003eFrederick Kiesler (1890–1965) was an Austrian-born American artist, architect, set designer, and sculptor best known for his exhibition installations and visionary architectural projects, including an experimental model of human habitation titled \u003ci\u003eThe Endless House\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpyros Papapetros is Associate Professor of Art and Architectural Theory and Historiography at Princeton University. His many publications include \u003ci\u003eOn the Animation of the Inorganic: Art, Architecture, and the Extension of Life \u003c\/i\u003eand the edited volume \u003ci\u003eRetracing the Expanded Field: Encounters between Art and Architecture \u003c\/i\u003e(MIT Press, 2014).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGerd Zillner is Director of the Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Vienna. He has curated numerous exhibitions on Kiesler and coedited the volumes \u003ci\u003eFrederick Kiesler: Face to Face with the Avant-Garde\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eFriedrich Kiesler: Architekt, Künstler, Visionär.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300220850405,"sku":"NP9780262046749","price":75.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262046749.jpg?v=1767732070","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/magic-architecture-isbn-9780262046749","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}