The structure of the proposed book divides (1) what Lacan has to offer architecture theory and (2) what architecture theory has to offer Lacan(ians). Authors have different conceptions of these, but lists are one way of extending our conversation toward the goal of a ‘balanced trade’, where both Lacanian and architecture theorists have something to gain by considering Lacan’s relations to architecture. As architecture theorists, authors have a familiarity with the built environment and pedagogies employed in architecture schools, both of which are saturated by discourse, ideology, and the ethnography of the everyday. As also Lacanians, they are aware perhaps more than average Lacanians of difficulties of extending psychoanalytical concepts to the built environment, but equally aware of the potential loss if such an extension is not made. Most architectural theorists interested in Lacan will not have had clinical training, but all are interested in the Lacanian clinic, both in the conditions of teaching and learning and in the cultural significance of architecture as a whole, where it is impossible not to admit that ‘architecture can be psychoanalyzed’.
two lists
Authors are invited to submit two lists (in one PDF), one enumerating ‘what Lacan has to offer architecture theory’, another on ‘what architecture theory has to offer Lacan(ians)’. After cross-comparison and discussions, these lists might be consolidated and used in the text of the book as a kind of prospectus.