The Aesthetics of Architecture: Philosophical Investigations into the Art of Building

The Aesthetics of Architecture contains a diverse set of essays in philosophy of architecture. This illustrated collection features discussions of philosophical issues generated by some of the great gems of professional architecture but also those raised by  vernacular architecture. By some of the top philosophers in the field of aesthetics as well as those in the architectural profession, essays in this book related architecture to other artforms such as photography. literature and painting.

Chapter 1. Introduction (David Goldblatt and Roger Paden).

Chapter 2. The Philosophy of Architecture (Paul Guyer Kant).

Chapter 3. Fact and Function in Architectural Criticism (Glenn Parsons).

Chapter 4. On Aesthetics and Function in Architecture: The Case of the "Spectacle" Art Museum (Larry Shiner).

Chapter 5.  Architecture, Life, and Habit (Andrew Ballantyne).

Chapter 6.  Fantastic Architecture: Lessons of Laputa and the Unbearable Lightness of Our Architecture (Karsten Harries).

Chapter 7.  A Dance to the Music of Architecture (Edward Winters).

Chapter 8.  Complicating Heidegger and the Truth of Architecture (Travis T. Anderson).

Chapter 9.  Imaginary Placements: The Other Space of Cinema (Amir Ameri).

Chapter 10.  The Urban "Photogénie" of Architainment (Jennifer Burris).

Chapter 11.  The Aesthetics of Space: Modern Architecture and Photography (Filip Mattens).

Chapter 12.  Werning Can Buildings Quote? (Remei Capdevila). 

Chapter 13.  Reading Mosques: Meaning and Architecture in Islam (Jale Nejdet Erzen).

Chapter 14.  The Aesthetics of Hanoi′s Architecture: Sense of Place through the Eyes of Local Painters (Dinh Quoc Phuong and Derham Groves).

Roger Paden is an Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at George Mason University. He has specialized in Political Philosophy, the Philosophy of Architecture and Urban Planning, Aesthetics, and Environmental Philosophy. He has published over 70 articles and one book entitled " Mysticism and Architecture: Wittgenstein and the Meanings of the Palais Stonborough."

David Goldblatt is the author of Art and Ventriloquism in the book series Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture (Routledge) and is co–editor of Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts (Prentice Hall), now in its 3rd edition. He has published in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Philosophy and Literature, Film and Philosophy, Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, The McNeese Review, The British Journal of Aesthetics and Architectural Design among others. David is on the International Advisory Board of the online journal Contemporary Aesthetics. Originally from New York City, he is emeritus professor of philosophy at Denison University, has studied architecture at Pratt Institute and holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.