Thursday, 17 March 2011

The Architectural Consequences of the Diaspora




April will see the publication of Symbolic Houses in Judaism
How Objects and Metaphors Construct Hybrid Places of Belonging
by Mimi Levy Lipis, the latest volume in the Ashgate Studies in Architecture series edited by Eamonn Canniffe

Investigating Jewish spatial practices by exploring the symbol of the house in Judaism, this book examines two groups of houses: ritual objects based on the iconology of the house (ritual houses) and house metaphors (the text, community and the covenant with god as house). This unique pairing is explored as place-making tools which exist in a constant state of tension between diaspora and belonging. Containing many photographs of historical and contemporary artefacts from Europe, Israel and the United States, this book maps out the intersection of architecture, Jewish studies, cultural and gender studies and opens up the discussion of distinctly Jewish objects and metaphors to discourses taking place outside explicitly Jewish contexts.

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