Geometries of Rhetorical Space: Weird Literature and Architecture

Abstract

Geometries of Terror is an academic course (and now also a published volume) that brings together the scientific contributions of the curators from the master’s degree program in Architecture at Iuav University of Venice, along with those of the guest speakers from the homonymous lecture series. Most notably, it showcases the graphic works produced by a large group of students, who drew upon their most primal emotions to explore the timeless question: what happens after death? – and above all, in which architectural and/or urban spaces? The answers are contained in graphic and rhetorical reconstructions that are sometimes frightening, sometimes funny, sometimes philosophical, or moving. With honesty and passion, the students of the courses have always explored the liminal space between the fantastic and the everyday with depth and intensity, discovering new ways of looking at who we are and what matters to us, exploring how mysterious, sad, strange and comical it is to be alive or, even worse, when we are no longer alive.