John Hendrix
John Shannon Hendrix is a professor at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. He has also been a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Lincoln in the UK, and John Cabot University in Rome. He has written several books on architecture, aesthetics, philosophy and psychoanalysis. He earned a PhD at Cornell University.
He is the author of:
Unconscious Thought in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
The Contradiction Between Form and Function in Architecture
The Splendour of English Gothic Architecture
Architecture as Cosmology: Lincoln Cathedral and English
Gothic Architecture
Robert Grosseteste: Philosophy of Intellect and Vision
Architecture and Psychoanalysis: Peter Eisenman and
Jacques Lacan
Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Spirit: From Plotinus to
Schelling and Hegel
Platonic Architectonics: Platonic Philosophies and the
Visual Arts
Architectural Forms and Philosophical Structures
The Relation Between Architectural Forms and
Philosophical Structures in the Work of Francesco
Borromini in Seventeenth-Century Rome
History and Culture in Italy
He is a co-editor of:
Architecture and the Unconscious
Bishop Robert Grosseteste and Lincoln Cathedral
The Cultural Role of Architecture
Renaissance Theories of Vision
Neoplatonic Aesthetics
Neoplatonism and the Arts
Phone: 401-324-5126
Address: 8 Admiralty Dr Apt 2
Middletown, Rhode Island
02842 USA
He is the author of:
Unconscious Thought in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
The Contradiction Between Form and Function in Architecture
The Splendour of English Gothic Architecture
Architecture as Cosmology: Lincoln Cathedral and English
Gothic Architecture
Robert Grosseteste: Philosophy of Intellect and Vision
Architecture and Psychoanalysis: Peter Eisenman and
Jacques Lacan
Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Spirit: From Plotinus to
Schelling and Hegel
Platonic Architectonics: Platonic Philosophies and the
Visual Arts
Architectural Forms and Philosophical Structures
The Relation Between Architectural Forms and
Philosophical Structures in the Work of Francesco
Borromini in Seventeenth-Century Rome
History and Culture in Italy
He is a co-editor of:
Architecture and the Unconscious
Bishop Robert Grosseteste and Lincoln Cathedral
The Cultural Role of Architecture
Renaissance Theories of Vision
Neoplatonic Aesthetics
Neoplatonism and the Arts
Phone: 401-324-5126
Address: 8 Admiralty Dr Apt 2
Middletown, Rhode Island
02842 USA
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Books by John Hendrix
This book contributes to the project of re-establishing architecture as a humanistic discipline, to re-establish an emphasis on the expression of ideas, and on the ethical role of architecture to engage the intellect of the observer and to represent human identity.
Papers by John Hendrix
A perfect example of this is the early work of Peter Eisenman. Certain compositional procedures in the design of the early houses can be directly related to the use of metaphor and metonymy in language, and can be directly related to the structuring of the unconscious in psychoanalysis. In the description of the compositional process of House I, the Barenholtz Pavilion, in Princeton, New Jersey, 1967–8, in his essay “Cardboard Architecture: House I and House II,” the first step was to structure form and space in such a way that they could produce a set of formal relationships reflective of an inherent interior formal structure, as in language, as demonstrated by the algorithms of Lacan. In order to do this, the forms used had to be divested of their usual associations (the structural function of a column, for example), in order that they could function as pure marking devices in a formal system. In metaphor, as has been seen, the primary signifier is divested of its associated signified in order to allow the shifting of the signifier in the metaphor to produce signification. In the composition process, the traditional forms associated with structure are used in a non-structural way. The Barenholtz Pavilion is laid out on a nine-square grid. A column in the corner marks the corner of the nine-square grid, the underlying conceptual organization of the house, but the column does not support anything because it does not correspond to the functional or structural requirements of the house at that spot. The column is the parole, the individual enunciated speech act, the material presence of the building, while the nine-square grid is la langue, the underlying structure, unconscious as it were in relation to the conscious enunciation or material presence. The nine-square grid as underlying structure corresponds to the la langue of Ferdinand de Saussure and the signifiance of Lacan, as the unconscious is structured like a language. The la langue is in the Symbolic realm of Lacan, the unconscious, while the form of the column is in the Imaginary realm, conscious thought and perception. The irrational presence of the column is the product of an underlying rational structure in the same way that irrational dream images are the product of an underlying rational structure of dream thoughts in Freudian dream analysis, but distorted by the condensation and displacement of dreamwork, forms of metaphor and metonymy; and in the same way that speech acts sometimes seem irrational but are the product of an underlying rational structure—slips of the tongue, ellipses, pleonasms, syllepses, appositions, catachresis, autonomases, etc. The rational underlies the irrational, and the form contradicts the function in the architecture.
This book contributes to the project of re-establishing architecture as a humanistic discipline, to re-establish an emphasis on the expression of ideas, and on the ethical role of architecture to engage the intellect of the observer and to represent human identity.
A perfect example of this is the early work of Peter Eisenman. Certain compositional procedures in the design of the early houses can be directly related to the use of metaphor and metonymy in language, and can be directly related to the structuring of the unconscious in psychoanalysis. In the description of the compositional process of House I, the Barenholtz Pavilion, in Princeton, New Jersey, 1967–8, in his essay “Cardboard Architecture: House I and House II,” the first step was to structure form and space in such a way that they could produce a set of formal relationships reflective of an inherent interior formal structure, as in language, as demonstrated by the algorithms of Lacan. In order to do this, the forms used had to be divested of their usual associations (the structural function of a column, for example), in order that they could function as pure marking devices in a formal system. In metaphor, as has been seen, the primary signifier is divested of its associated signified in order to allow the shifting of the signifier in the metaphor to produce signification. In the composition process, the traditional forms associated with structure are used in a non-structural way. The Barenholtz Pavilion is laid out on a nine-square grid. A column in the corner marks the corner of the nine-square grid, the underlying conceptual organization of the house, but the column does not support anything because it does not correspond to the functional or structural requirements of the house at that spot. The column is the parole, the individual enunciated speech act, the material presence of the building, while the nine-square grid is la langue, the underlying structure, unconscious as it were in relation to the conscious enunciation or material presence. The nine-square grid as underlying structure corresponds to the la langue of Ferdinand de Saussure and the signifiance of Lacan, as the unconscious is structured like a language. The la langue is in the Symbolic realm of Lacan, the unconscious, while the form of the column is in the Imaginary realm, conscious thought and perception. The irrational presence of the column is the product of an underlying rational structure in the same way that irrational dream images are the product of an underlying rational structure of dream thoughts in Freudian dream analysis, but distorted by the condensation and displacement of dreamwork, forms of metaphor and metonymy; and in the same way that speech acts sometimes seem irrational but are the product of an underlying rational structure—slips of the tongue, ellipses, pleonasms, syllepses, appositions, catachresis, autonomases, etc. The rational underlies the irrational, and the form contradicts the function in the architecture.