Architecture Words 3: The Poetics of a Wall Projection

Originally published in German in 1985 as Die Poetik eines Mauervorsprung, Jan Turnovský’s The Poetics of a Wall Projection is ostensibly a description of a corner within the breakfast room of the Villa Stonborough in Vienna, designed by Ludwig Wittgenstein and Paul Engelmann.


But it is also much more. Working from within an established Viennese tradition (practised most famously by Krauss, Freud, Loos and Wittgenstein himself), Turnovský’s study elucidates a complex set of ideas from something seemingly trivial – in this case, an analysis of the villa's corner detail expands into a wider exploration of the logics of architectural syntax and his belief that good and poetic architecture is always also practical.


Jan Turnovský (1941–1995) at various times worked as a carpenter, graphic designer, tenor saxophonist, poet and architectural researcher at the Architectural Association and the Technical University in Vienna.


The Poetics of a Wall Projection is translated, and introduced, by Kent Kleinman, Dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University.


Architecture Words is a series of texts and important essays on architecture written by architects, critics and scholars. Like many aspects of everyday life, contemporary architectural culture is dominated by an endless production and consumption of images, graphics and information. Rather than mirror this larger force, this series of small books seeks to deflect it by means of direct language, concise editing and beautiful, legible graphic design. Each volume in the series offers the reader texts that distil important larger issues and problems, and communicate architectural ideas; not only the ideas contained within each volume, but also the enduring power of written ideas more generally to challenge and change the way all architects think.