Architecture is an experience - with the intellect and with all our senses, in motion, and in use. But in order to actually discuss and assess it with relevance, a clarification of terms is essential in order to avoid the vagueness that often prevails when talking about architecture. This dictionary provides a vocabulary that allows the architecture discourse to go beyond the declaration of constructive relationships or the description of architectonic forms in familiar terms like "roof," "base," "wall," and "axis" or "proportion". The point is to describe the experience of architecture: how exactly does it contribute to the experience of a situation? For instance, the staging of an entrance situation, or the layout and visitor routes through a museum. From "context," through "guidance," "readability," "patina," "spatial structure," "symmetry" and "tectonics," to "width" (and "narrowness") or "window," the most important terms in architectural language are explained precisely and in detail.

Text in English and German. Third Revised Edition 2018. If there is one building by Le Corbusier that represents a synthesis of his basic concepts it is certainly the Unite dhabitation built in Marseille in 194652. This built manifesto does not simply put forward a social model as a utopia, but also the unity of architecture and town planning. It is one of the most significant buildings there has ever been, but it also triggered a great deal of controversy. The story of the response to it has been recorded in order to investigate why this extremely ambitious project in particular should have caused such a conflict between intention and effect. The Unite dhabitation in Marseille is now very popular with the people who live in it as a building. Despite all the criticism, it obviously still offers functional advantages that make it easier for individuals and the community to live together. The enormous sculptural force and the characteristic interplay of light and colour shown in the photographs make the building into a "personality" that can be identified with. As well as this, the building also offers something special in terms of concrete spatial experience. In the age of a superficial 'adventure society' it claims the intensity of an everyday experience that is both casual and at the same time complex, embracing all the senses. This extends from the reception in the imposing foyer to the 'theatre' of figures on the roof terrace in the light of the landscape, from the inverted urban scenery of the promenade publique to twilight seclusion in the silent residential streets. And it includes the flats themselves, which open up expansively to draw in the sea and mountain mood. Le Corbusier used his architectural resources atmospherically and scenically to give the Unite dhabitation a succinct coherence that also forms the basis for individual lives within its rooms and spaces. Precise observation and description reveal the mechanisms of these effects. All three authors are qualified architects. Alban Janson is professor of the fundamentals of architecture at Karlsruhe University, Carsten Krohn lives and works as an author in Berlin, and Anja Grunwald teaches architectural photography at Karlsruhe University.

Architektur ist die Kunst, Raume zu artikulieren. Auch fur den Massstab der Stadt, von der Turschwelle bis zur Region, geht es um die Architektur urbaner Raume. Diese sind Gegenstand des architektonischen Entwurfs, der ein Repertoire spezifischer Mittel schoepferisch einsetzt, so dass wir Stadte als raumlich gestaltet erleben. Dieses architektonische Repertoire wird hier beschrieben. Entwurf und urban design finden wieder Eingang in die Urbanistik.

Architecture creates complex spatial situations that are the subject of urban design. Design uses a repertoire of specific architectural means in a creative way, resulting in cities that can be lived in and perceived in their three-dimensional experience. The current book, an extended new edition of Architecture of the City (2016), describes the repertoire with which architecture and design regain an entry to urbanistics. It pleads for an "architectonic turn" in urbanistics - a demand to finally comprehend the city architecturally: the issue is not just about buildings in the city, but about architecture of the city as a whole, as is clearly expressed in the new title of City as Architecture.