Architectural (mis)metaphor : the creative potential of conceptual (d)rift in architectural analysis
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2025
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On the evening of the 15th of April 2019, a fire broke out at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris which led to the collapse of the central spire. The event left a literal and figurative void, which initiated an influx of metaphorical responses on the internet. Articles were published using metaphors as conceptual abridgments to suggest the collapse represented the state of Christianity, French politics, or the environment. Designers, meanwhile, spontaneously uploaded rectification solutions that converted the church into a ship, garden, zoo, or phoenix. The apparent ubiquity, and contrariness, of the responses catalysed into my inquiry of a subject I refer to by the coined phrase ‘architectural (mis)metaphor’.
Metaphor research dates back to Aristotle, and whilst it is sizeable in volume and scope, it primarily addresses metaphor through philosophical, linguistic or literary frameworks. Architecture-centric concepts of metaphor remain under-represented. To address this deficit, my investigation was positioned at the intersection of architecture and philosophy. It applies and challenges traditional models of metaphorical analysis to provide nuanced insights specific to (re)reading architectural design and discourse.
This dissertation compares two models of metaphorology. The first is Hans Blumenberg’s (1920-1996) approach from Paradigms for a Metaphorology (1960) which “burrow[s] down to the substructure of thought” (1980, 5) to reveal conceptual absolutes. The second is influenced by Jacques Derrida’s (1930-2004) provisional use of the term ‘metaphorology’ in his essay ‘White Mythology: Metaphor in the Text of Philosophy’ (1974) which led me to create the term ‘(mis)metaphorology’. Whilst Blumenberg explores the fixed readings of metaphors, Derrida states misreadings of metaphors are inevitable due to the “sediment in the tangle of their roots” (1974, 54). (The etymology of ‘metaphor’ is itself metaphorical, mobile, and entangled, as it means ‘carrying [meaning] beyond’).
After reviewing the two existing models, my contribution to the research field is to propose a hypothetical synthesis where meaning oscillates in a gestalt manner, drifting in the rift. I refer to this third model by the portmanteau-neologism ‘conceptual (d)rift’. The three models are then applied to three architectural case studies: Adolf Loos’s The Chicago Tribune Column (1922), Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) and Bernard Tschumi’s Parc de la Villette (1983).
The research aims to reveal that alternate (mis)readings of architecture, both manifest and hidden, have always existed. (Mis)metaphor and conceptual (d)rift highlight the positive potential of ambiguity and the ‘creative sparks’ which can be generated by their unresolvable tension.
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