The collected essays in this book wish to make a modest claim: even though some have

called for the end of ‘history’ and ‘theory’, Walter Benjamin’s oeuvre is still of interest as far

as the historicity of modern architecture is concerned. Though this claim might also apply

to a few other philosophers of the last century, Benjamin’s case remains unique. Consider

this: in the last two decades, architects and scholars have read and re-read essays of many

thinkers wishing to shed some light on the contemporaneity of architecture. Still many

have not given up the attempt to ‘fold’, ‘deconstruct’ and ‘phenomenologise’ architecture,

not only in seminar rooms but also in the abyss of design studios. There is something in

Benjamin’s work that remains unattainable to pragmatic ends. Yes, in the present trendy

and exhausted mood of ‘philosophy applied to architecture’, he has survived.