Following Norberg-Schulz: An Architectural History through the Essay Film

This book examines the 'window' in the life and work of the seminal architectural thinker Christian Norberg-Schulz (1926 - 2000).

It draws new attention to his architectural designs and re-examines his acclaimed theoretical work on the phenomenology of architecture and place within the context of a biography of his life, linking him with other historical figures such as Helen Keller and Rainer Maria Rilke, and framing him within the modernist tradition of the latter. Taking a novel, experimental approach, the book also explores the potential of the essay-film as an innovative new approach to producing architectural history.

Bridging archival research and artistic exploration, its ten chapters, written by an architectural historian who is also a film-maker, are each accompanied by a short documentary film, hosted online and linked from within the chapter, which use the medium of film to creatively explore and delve deeper into little-known aspects of Norberg-Schulz's theory of genius loci and the phenomenology of architecture. The book questions what it means to 'follow' those who came before, exploring the positionality of the architectural historian/filmmaker.

Offering an insightful account of the life, work, and theory of a key thinker, Following Norberg-Schulz is also essential reading for those interested in practice-led research methodologies, particularly in the practice of film-making and the essay film, providing a highly innovative example of scholarly research which bridges the text-film gap.

Book Details

• Author: Anna Ulrikke Andersen
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• eBook ISBN: 9781350248380, 135024838X
• Print ISBN: 9781350248366, 1350248363
• Other ISBNs: 1350248401, 9781350248403