The singular objects of architecture Book

"What is a singular object? An idea, a building, a color, a sentiment, a human being. This enthusiastic dialogue between two of the most interesting thinkers in philosophy and architecture today moves from these singular objects to problems of politics, identity, and aesthetics, and the exchange becomes an imaginative exploration of the possibilities of modern architecture and the future of modern life." This wide-ranging conversation bridges architecture and philosophy as Jean Baudrillard and Jean Nouvel discuss such topics as the city of tomorrow and the ideal of transparency, the gentrification of New York City, and Frank Gehry's surprising Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Nouvel prompts Baudrillard to reflect on his signature concepts (the virtual, transparency, fatal strategies, oblivion, and seduction), and the confrontation between philosophical concerns and the specificity of architecture creates novel and striking formulations - and new ways of understanding the connections between the practitioner and the philosopher, the object and the idea.