In this volume, Tschumi embarks on what he calls a “poetics,” addressing both the rational elaboration of work and the irrational eruption of inexplicable elements in architectural projects. How do chance, intuition, and analogy, among other elements, intersect with the logical play of concept, context, and program to generate innovative and informed design?

Highlights include circular buildings, projects with suspended gardens and floating rectangular masses, superposed structures created through surrealist tactics, an immense educational research complex in France that straddles building and urban design, a museum in China made of intersecting conic shapes, and a cultural center in Italy that is structured as an investigation into courtyards and facades. The book features nearly thirty projects developed over the last fifteen years and demonstrates Tschumi’s longstanding interest not only in producing conceptual clarity but also in questioning architecture itself.