Built Upon Love, Architectural Longing After Ethics and Aesthetics

A translation of the opening section of the book's introduction, titled "Architecture and Human Desire," follows: It may seem obvious that human desire has shaped the built environment, sometimes in ways that we now consider unsuitable for the public good. Magnificent buildings were erected to satisfy those spiritual needs that make edifices — from the late modern standpoint somewhat absurdly — entirely "useless," including grand funerary monuments to honor the dead and temples for the worship of strange gods. Buildings have also been objects belonging to the rich and powerful, symbols of decadent consumption and instruments at the disposal of elites to exert power over the masses. And by presenting ideologies and institutions as false idols, they have more often than not helped create oppressive environments. Modernity has rightly condemned this manner of building and deemed it dangerous. As a pragmatic alternative, it has proposed that buildings should respond to the needs of individuals in a democratic society: people's desire for shelter and refuge, for a home and a place to work, a place where human beings might lead the happiest and most pleasant lives possible. Following the fading of the concept of God in modernity, perhaps nothing else may seem necessary. Recently, under the heading of "sustainable development," these goals have been blended with a sense of responsibility toward the environment and the well-being of humanity as a whole. Meaningful architecture efficiently meets humanity's material needs while remaining mindful of the world's resources for the continuation of human civilization. This book argues that the material and technological alternatives before architecture — in light of our historical failures, however advanced and justifiable they may be