Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment

"Stanek's work has already taken scholarship on Henri Lefebvre’s concept of space to an unprecedented level of philosophical sophistication. With the discovery of this new text, Stanek escorts Lefebvre to the center of architecture theory since 1968. Lefebvre’s conceptual text and Stanek’s exquisite Introduction together enable the possibility of thinking not about architecture, but thinking architecturally about how we inhabit our world. Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment takes us toward a concept of the architectural imagination that is a powerful mediator between thought and action."—K. Michael Hays, Harvard Graduate School of Design

"We finally have access to [Henri Lefebvre’s] most forceful meditation on the spatial utopia he aspired to. We owe the rescue and publication of this notable book to the perseverance and talent of Łukasz Stanek, who wrote the volume’s excellent and comprehensive introduction."—Environment & Planning D: Society and Space

"A work that is profound, relevant, and important."—Canadian Journal of Sociology

"This book, which focuses on architecture and redefines it. . . according to Lefebvre, architecture should work towards enjoyment and against aestheticism."—Finnish Architectural Review

"Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment not only provides critical insight into Lefebvre, whose impact is still palpable, but reveals new connections between his ideas and design and, ultimately, capitalism and the built environment."—Buildings & Landscapes