The first publication of artist and architect Frederick Kiesler’s epoch-spanning history of
human architecture largely unknown but still relevant. Magic Architecture was the architect
Frederick Kiesler’s most ambitious book project an epoch-spanning history of human housing
from prehistory to the atomic era submitted to editors after World War II but left
unpublished. In its holistic view of habitation through the lens of anthropology ecology and
the life sciences Magic Architecture is one of the most extraordinary texts on architecture
written in the twentieth century now at last published in the twenty-first. Kiesler’s
exploration of the effects of modern technology in combination with the alternative
epistemology of “magical” practices associated with cave drawings and the first artifacts of
human industry reflects his profoundly interdisciplinary perspective on the development of art
architecture and design. This critical edition preserves Kiesler’s conception of the book as
a neo-Vitruvian treatise divided into ten parts that narrate an alternative history and theory
of architecture. Also included are more than seventy composite plate illustrations consisting
of images cut and pasted from books and popular science journals with elaborate captions as
well as Kiesler’s own line drawings made specifically for this project. The editors have
reassembled the book’s text and illustrations from archival documents supplementing them with
notes that trace the copious development of the work. Introductory essays provide an
interpretation of key themes and bibliographic sources as well as a chronological context of
the architect’s research. Appendixes offer additional textual and visual material gathered by
Kiesler for the project.
