On Balance (Architecture and Vertigo)

This book reflects on the precarious equilibrium at the heart of contemporary cities, where the drive to conquer ever greater heights has reconfigured our notion of abyss. Through an interdisciplinary approach informed by social and medical sciences, the book explores how built environments elicit a range of spatial thrills as well as anxieties. Beginning with an overview of how the modern discourse on vertigo has permeated the sciences, arts and humanities, it then shifts the attention to spatial practices which require the mastery of vertigo, such as climbing and wire walking. Finally, it focuses on architecture, offering an original reading of modern and contemporary spaces that affect our perceptual stability. Since the turn of millennium and the rise of the experience economy, urban environments have been increasingly turned into gravity playgrounds and architecture is deeply implicated in our perception of balance at multiple sensory, spatial and social levels.