The scale of apocalypse: Paolo Soleri’s nuclear revelation

Created against the backdrop of an imminent nuclear confrontation, the architectural drawings and narratives authored by architect Paolo Soleri offer unique insights into the relationship between apocalyptic imagination, the invention of atomic weapons, and radical visions of future architecture. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Keller, Eliyahu (Author)
Format: Article (Journal)
Language:English
Published: 2022
In: Apocalyptica
Year: 2022, Volume: 1, Issue: 2, Pages: 11-38
ISSN:2751-7721
DOI:10.17885/heiup.apoc.2022.2.24749
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Online Access:Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.apoc.2022.2.24749
Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/apocalyptica/article/view/24749
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Author Notes:Eliyahu Keller
Description
Summary:Created against the backdrop of an imminent nuclear confrontation, the architectural drawings and narratives authored by architect Paolo Soleri offer unique insights into the relationship between apocalyptic imagination, the invention of atomic weapons, and radical visions of future architecture. This paper examines Soleri’s architectural representations—including his less-known works created towards the end of the Cold War—theoretical writings, intellectual influences, personal letters and geography of operation, and places those within the nexus of a strictly American nuclear eschatology. Examined through this lens, Soleri’s visions do not offer a promised future for a humanity at stake. Rather, they expose the limits of architectural imagination in face of the unimaginable, and reveal the complicity of architecture, however speculative, in bringing about the end of the world.
Item Description: Online veröffentlicht: 08.05.2023
Gesehen am 13.04.2026
Physical Description:Online Resource
ISSN:2751-7721
DOI:10.17885/heiup.apoc.2022.2.24749