The House As SKIN

Abstract

This paper investigates J. G. Ballard's vision of the house, tracing its origin to the ideas expressed by the British architectural avant-gardes of the fifties and sixties; these regarded inhabited spaces as psycho-physical membranes, bio-architectural constructs functioning as extensions of the body. The philosophical sources of Ballard's early fiction are also investigated to show the impact of Existentialism on his concept of dwelling, both via early Pop Art and directly through Sartre's and Heidegger's works. One of the aims is to disclose the importance for Ballard of Archigram's fantasies of bio-technological responsive houses but also to interrogate the imbrications in his fiction of such fantasies with contemporary theoretical ideas of dwelling (McLuhan, Banham), authenticity, and the estranging chaos and unhomeliness of the world (Heidegger). The article discusses specific examples of Ballard's unhomely, post-human habitations, from psychotropic houses to the neo-gothic technological tower-block, showing how they are imbued with contemporary architectural and philosophical theories. A special emphasis is placed on the uncanny and – so I argue here – gendered spaces of High-Rise .

Keywords:

• Archigram
• Brutalism
• Marshall McLuhan
• Peter Reyner Banham
• architecture
• body
• High-Rise