Research Conversation Darius Yaïch Ammon Karácsony

red figure of a Greek woman holding an instrument in front of a black background — Sappho by the Brygos Painter, c. 470, adapted from the photograph by Wikimedia Commons user ArchaiOptix (CC-BY-SA-4.0)

Title: Poetry + Architecture
Tuesday, May 7, 2024, 16:00
Hosted by the Chair for the History and Theory of Architecture
ETH Zürich, HIL D 65

Abstract: Architecture of the Soul is a book about architecture, a book written by an architect at the beginning of his career and therefore prospective rather than retrospective; not the ripened fruit of a life’s work like Marcus Vitruvius’ De Architectura, Leon Battista Alberti’s De Re Aedificatoria, or Andrea Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura, it is more akin to the manifestation of affinities and ambitions that characterizes Le Corbusier’s Vers une Architecture, Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction, and Rem Koolhaas’ Delirious New York. The central question it investigates is: what is poetic architecture, and why does it move our souls?

Darius Yaïch Ammon Karácsony studied architecture and urbanism in Zurich, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro and was additionally educated in the practices of Diller+Scofidio and OMA New York. After graduating from ETH Zürich, he taught first-year design studio and lectured on the history and theory of architectural drawing at EPF Lausanne. He lived in Florence and Rome for two years to study Renaissance art and consecutively moved on to serve as the head of a design research program at EPFL, where he initiated a collaboration with the Brain Mind Institute (BMI). As a member of the British School of Archaeology at Athens (BSA), he conducted research for a treatise on the relationship between poetry and architecture and co-directed a landscape archaeology project. He currently works on architectural projects in heritage-protected contexts.