Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how literature and literary techniques can enable or inspire alternative modes of architectural research. It examines the interconnection between the famous drawings of Saint-Exupery's Little Prince and the story's narrative and argues that drawing makes place possible only if constantly re-explained and re-appropriated through narrative. It focuses on architectural questions that are particularly pressing for contemporary globalized and capital-driven architectural reality. The book analyses how the literary representation of architecture constitutes a mode of resistance to the excess of finance capital and the existential drift of contemporary western society. It looks at Sebald's Austerlitz and also argues how a story that weaves imaginary events into the daily rituals around actual and familiar buildings allows psychologists to examine architecture's psychological effects on its users.