REVITILIZING THE HISTORICAL ESSENCE OF THE GEM AREA THROUGH LITERARY ARCHITECTURE NOHA HATEM MOSTAFA The following section will discuss the process and product of merging and integrating architecture and literature through studying various creative writings turned into expressive forms. It is followed then by showing the effect architectural movements has on literary works. The second section will introduce theory of “Chronotope Architecture” which will be discussed in depth according to the definitions and works of philosophers and architecture theorists.
2.1. Integration between Architecture and Literature Philosophers argued that both architecture and literature are interdependent where it shows that architecture can act as an incentive for literature and literature can be translated into spatial forms of architecture where both lead to a unified approach of expressive forms called literary architecture. Literary Architecture is the bi-product of literature and architecture. It is an ideological study of architecture design that focuses on two contrasting yet complimentary forms of art; architecture and literature (Chan, 2019). As Matteo Perocoli, founder of The Laboratory of Literary Architecture, stated “it’s a cross-disciplinary exploration of literature as architecture.” (Stein, 2013) Therefore, this argument shows the effect each of these forms of art has on each other. 2.1.1. Expressive Architectural Forms through Creative Writing This approach is conducted by the founder of The Laboratory of Literary Architecture, Matteo Perocoli. As a writer and architect, his workshop incorporates between creative writing and architecture. Colum McCann, a student of Perocoli, stated that “The process of adding word to word is much the same as adding brick to brick…I can’t think of a better course where the purposes of two arts are so finely blended.” Perocoli’s class mantra is “literary. Not literal.” It encourages students to get their favourite books, chapters, short stories ...etc. and extract expressions, metaphors or feelings to interpret into physical forms. (Stein, 2013) A project that used Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” as an incentive for their model, depicted Hemingway’s symbolism of a never-ending misunderstanding and miscommunication between a married couple who cannot see eye to eye into a model that has the user moving around in circles. (Prescott, 1988) Ernest’s literary piece ended before the conversation between the couple was done because their perspective was never the same, so the story metaphorically showed the never-ending cycle. Perocoli’s students interpreted this struggle as it appears in Figure (4) into a physical model with a fragmented circle that when looked at, at first, seem tangled, however, they do not meet, similarly to the mentioned couple. (Wang et. Al, n.d)
Figure 4 Students of The Laboratory of Architecture interpreting Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" into a physical form (Wang et. Al,n.d.)
