Architectures of Existence: Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics

Architectures of Existence proposes that philosophical thinking (ecosophical thinking) can inform the way we engage with our world and its inhabitants, as architects, designers and planners, but also as individuals, as people, and as a society.

In Art et existence, Maldiney states: ＂For us, to inhabit is to exist＂. This book aims to unfold, extend, articulate and thicken this postulate by interweaving architecture, city, landscape, literature and philosophy. It takes up the synergistic lines of long-term research carried out from an ecosophical perspective. Such an attitude explores an art of existing in multiplicity, singularity and openness, manifesting the critical dimension through a reinterpretation of the knotting of the trajectories of time, humanity and its becoming. Insisting on what is between things and beings as well as on what is happening, regenerating, recycling, reviving, saving, diversifying, sparing, recreating, meditating: and so caring. These are all eco-rhythms of a different type between human and non-human, to consider ourselves in the world. In an era of uncertainty and climate threats, this book develops the margins of possibility offered by the subject of architecture.

This book will be of interest to researchers and students of architecture, urban planning and philosophy.

Chris Younès is a professor at the ESA (École Spéciale d’Architecture) in Paris, France. Founder of the GERPHAU laboratory, she is currently president of the International Thematic Network PhilAU (Philosophy, Architecture, Urban). She is also a member of the Board of the European Association for Architectural Education and a founding member of ARENA, the Architectural Research Network.