Architecture of the Indimensionable
In focusing attention on the measurable aspects of the built environment—studs sixteen inches on center, each room’s square footages precisely calculated, window details specified to the millimeter—architects lose sight of those spatial features that exceed the disciplinary hand of the ruler. There is no precise measure of the anxiety that spikes with our first step down into a dark basement, no notation that captures the supreme unease evoked by entering a house with a ghastly past, no volume to the discomfort we feel when alone in large spaces. Architecture, in other words, has its frightful qualities, and these terrors do not submit to standard units of measure.
Architecture of the Indimensionable explores these boundless horrors by consulting those dark souls who have not been afraid to survey the Hellmouths and musty attics of the world. It gathers together a collection of essays, interviews, and drawings sourced from these experts in the indimensionable: haunted house designers, ghost hunters, horror writers and those rare architectural practitioners who venture to cast their eyes towards terrors they cannot meter.
With contributions from Matthew Wagstaffe, Steven Rodriguez, James Coleman, Nicholas Miller, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Rosa McElheny, Ethan Zisson, Shirley Jackson, Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, Peter Eisenman, Maia Simon, Michelle Oing, Jacob Schaffert, and Hyung Cho.
Interviews with Liam Gast, Steve Gonsalves, Will Wiles, Dave B., Charles Rosenay, Kristen Gallerneaux, and Kathryn James ("A Haunting at the Beinecke").
Designed by Hyung Cho and Steven Rodriguez
Published by Familiars Books, 2019
Softcover, 275 pages, b&w, 4.625 × 7 inches