Celebrating the Marvellous

Neil Spiller is Hawksmoor Chair of Architecture and Landscape and Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, London, prior to this he was Dean of the School of Architecture, Design and Construction and Professor of Architecture and Digital Theory. Before this he was Vice-Dean and Graduate Director of Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL). Neil has guest-edited 7 titles of AD including the highly successful Architects in Cyberspace I and II (1995, 1998), Protocell Architecture (2011) and Drawing Architecture (2013). He is a member of the AD Editorial Board. He has also published books with Thames and Hudson, as author of Visionary Architecture-Blueprints of the Modern Imagination (2006), Digital Architecture Now (2008) and as co-editor of Educating Architects (2014).

About the Guest-Editor 5 Introduction: That was Then, This is Now and Next 6

Architecture After the Rain 16

Surrealism and Architectural Atmosphere 24

Moody Attunement in Giorgio de Chirico’s Metaphysical City 30 

Alien Ossuary: The HR Giger Museum Bar 36

Making A Spectacle Of Society (Thoughts on Surreality) 42

A Simply Marvellous Reaction: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response and the Desk Tutorial 50

As the Levee Breaks: Entrusting the Surreal Mississippi 58

Hearing Trumpets, Errant Furniture and Architectural Magic: Arch Combinatoria and the Horizontal Forest 64

The Shadowy Thickening of Space and Time with Chance: An Interview with the Quay Brothers 72

Surrealist Thames-side Piers: Tellurian Relics 78

Silver Parrots: Mischievous Characters and Feathered Aerialists 84

Magic Craftsmanship: A Glimpse into Bryan Cantley’s Thirdspace 92

Architecture in Aqueous Flux: The CaCO3 Depositional House 98

Transcending Geometry: The Longhouse 106

Directions for Getting Lost: Or How to Change Your Mind 114

Subterranean Speculations: The Chthonopolis 120

Counterpoint: ‘Sur’ Realism: After Surrealism Comes Hyperrealism 128

Contributors 134