Magic Architecture

The first publication of artist and architect Frederick Kiesler’s epoch-spanning history of human architecture, largely unknown but still relevant. Magic Architecture 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history of human housing from prehistory to the atomic era, submitted to editors after World War II but left unpublished.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, Magic Architecture 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. This 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.

Frederick Kiesler; edited by Spyros Papapetros and Gerd Zillner

Introduction: The Unity of Vision and Fact PART ONE Chapter 1: The Eternal Preamble to Architecture Chapter 2: Fear of the Unseen Chapter 3: The Enigma of Death Chapter 4: The Enigma of Birth Chapter 5: Birth necessitates Shelter; Death inspires Architecture Chapter 6: The Cave, first natural Shelter Chapter 7: The Nest, first artificial Shelter Chapter 8: The Universe as Architecture Chapter 9: The Split in the Unity of Vision and Fact PART TWO ANIMAL ARCHITECTURE AND MAN’S ABILITY TO BUILD Introduction Instinct, Memory and the Drive for Invention Chapter 1: Man’s House is Animal Architecture Chapter 2: The Building-Instinct of Animals: the Termitary of the Termites Chapter 3: Animal Engineering: the Dam of the Beaver Chapter 4: Building Tools of Animals Chapter 5: Man a Composite Animal of Building Techniques Chapter 6: Man’s first Invention: The (first) transformation of dead material into useful tools Chapter 7: The (second) transformation of dead material into magic tools of physical attraction Chapter 8: The (third) transformation of dead material into magic tools of spiritual Power PART THREE AWARENESS OF THE MIRACULOUS Introduction: From Animal Housing to Magic Architecture Chapter 1: The Birth of Magic Design Man discovers his capacity to convert his own body into a dream-image through make-up. Chapter 2: Man discovers that the fingers of his hand are magic wands for the transformation of surfaces into images through the application of paint. Chapter 3: Man discovers that by making grooves (engraving) hard stone objects held in his hand can transform soft stone surfaces into images. Chapter 4: Discovery and Affirmation of the Superfluous PART FOUR ART AND THE UNKNOWN Introduction: The Superfluous becomes a Necessity Chapter 1: The Meaning of Magic Chapter 2: Man part of the Cosmos and Man apart from the Cosmos Chapter 3: Artifacts, Symbols and Art Chapter 4: Myth and Magic Chapter 5: The psycho-plastic Era Chapter 6: The ideo-plastic Era Chapter 7: The Era of Metamorphosis Chapter 8: The Era of Abstraction Chapter 9: The Physio-plastic Era