Built upon Love

A vision of architecture that transcends concerns of form and function and finds the connections between the architect''s wish to design a beautiful world and architecture''s imperative to provide a better place for society.The forced polarity between form and function in considerations of architectureopposing art to social interests ethics to poetic expressionobscures the deep connections between ethical and poetical values in architectural tradition. Architecture has been and must continue to be writes Alberto Prez-Gmez built upon love. Modernity has rightly rejected past architectural excesses but Prez-Gmez argues the materialistic and technological alternatives it proposes do not answer satisfactorily the complex desire that defines humanity. True architecture is concerned with far more than fashionable form affordable homes and sustainable development; it responds to a desire for an eloquent place to dwellone that lovingly provides a sense of order resonant with our dreams. In Built upon Love Prez-Gmez uncovers the relationship between love and architecture in order to find the points of contact between poetics and ethicsbetween the architect''s wish to design a beautiful world and architecture''s imperative to provide a better place for society.Eros as first imagined by the early lyric poets of classical Greece is the invisible force at the root of our capacity to create and comprehend the poetic image. Prez-Gmez examines the nature of architectural form in the light of eros seduction and the tradition of the poetic image in Western architecture. He charts the ethical dimension of architecture tracing the connections between philiathe love of friends that entails mutual responsibility among equalsand architectural program. He explores the position of architecture at the limits of language and discusses the analogical language of philia in modernist architectural theory. Finally he uncovers connections between ethics and poetics describing a contemporary practice of architecture under the sign of love incorporating both eros and philia.