More than ever architecture is in need of provocation a new path beyond the traditional
notion that buildings must serve as vessels or symbols of something outside themselves.
Non-Referential Architecture is nothing less than a manifesto for a new architecture. It brings
together two leading thinkers architect Valerio Olgiati and theorist Markus Breitschmid who
have grappled with this problem since their first encounter in 2005. In a world that itself
increasingly rejects ideologies of any kind Olgiati and Breitschmid offer Non-Referential
Architecture as a radical new approach free from rigid ideologies. Non-referential buildings
they argue are entities that are themselves meaningful outside a vocabulary of fixed symbols
and images and their historical connotations. For more than a decade Olgiati and
Breitschmid's thinking has placed them at the forefront of architectural theory. Indispensable
for understanding what the future might hold for architecture Non-Referential Architecture
will become a new classic. The book's first edition published in May 2018 by Simonett & Baer
was sold-out within months. This revised and slightly redesigned new edition makes this key
text available again.
