Where is the space for dreaming in the twenty-first century? Lofty thoughts, like dreams, are born and live overhead, just as they have been represented in Renaissance paintings and modern cartoons. Ceilings are often repositories of stories, events and otherwise invisible oneiric narratives. Yet environments that inspire innovative thinking are dwindling as our world confronts enormous challenges, and almost all of our thinking, debating and decision-making takes place under endless ceiling grids. Quantitative research establishes that spaces with taller ceilings elicit broader, more creative thoughts. Today, ceilings are usually squat conduits of technology: they have become the blind spot of modern architecture. The twenty essays in this book look across cultures, places and ceilings over time to discover their potential to uplift the human spirit. Not just one building element among many, the ceiling is a key to unlock the architectural imagination. Ceilings and Dreams aims to correct this blind spot and encourages architects and designers, researchers and students, to look up through writings organized into three expansive categories: reveries, suspensions and inversions. The contributors contemplate the architecture of levity and the potential of the ceiling, once again, as a place for dreaming.

Where is the space for dreaming in the twenty-first century? Lofty thoughts, like dreams, are born and live overhead, just as they have been represented in Renaissance paintings and modern cartoons. Ceilings are often repositories of stories, events and otherwise invisible oneiric narratives. Yet environments that inspire innovative thinking are dwindling as our world confronts enormous challenges, and almost all of our thinking, debating and decision-making takes place under endless ceiling grids. Quantitative research establishes that spaces with taller ceilings elicit broader, more creative thoughts. Today, ceilings are usually squat conduits of technology: they have become the blind spot of modern architecture. The twenty essays in this book look across cultures, places and ceilings over time to discover their potential to uplift the human spirit. Not just one building element among many, the ceiling is a key to unlock the architectural imagination. Ceilings and Dreams aims to correct this blind spot and encourages architects and designers, researchers and students, to look up through writings organized into three expansive categories: reveries, suspensions and inversions. The contributors contemplate the architecture of levity and the potential of the ceiling, once again, as a place for dreaming.

This book documents contemporary architectural projects designed by women architects participating in diverse forms of practice in diverse regions around the world. Examining each design within its unique context, this collection of forty projects includes beautifully illustrated case studies of transformative buildings, encompassing a range of sizes, building types, materials, and construction methods. Overcoming historical challenges within architectural practice, the women architects in this collection lead their firms and expand the field of architecture. Brit Andresen, Andresen O'Gorman Architects, Australia; Sandra Barclay, Barclay & Crousse Architecture, Peru + France; Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Mexico; Shirley Blumberg, KPMB Architects, Canada; Eliana Bormida, Bormida y Yanzon Arquitectos, Argentina; Fernanda Canales Arquitectura, Mexico; Gabriela Carrillo, Mexico; Aziza Chaouni Projects, Canada; Elizabeth Diller, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, USA; Carmen Espegel, Espegel Arquitectos, Espana; Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, Grafton Architects, Eire; Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang, USA + France; Lina Ghotmeh Architecture, France; Melkan Gursel, Tabanlioglu Architects, Turkey, UK + USA; Studio Anna Heringer, Deutschland; Francine Houben, Mecanoo, Nederland, Taiwan, UK + USA; Carla Juacaba Studio, Brasil; Antonia Lehmann, Izquierdo Lehmann Arquitectos, Chile; Ines Lobo Arquitectos, Portugal; Lu Wenyu, Amateur Architecture Studio, China; Doriana Mandrelli Fuksas, STUDIO FUKSAS, Italia, France, UAE + China; Nina Maritz Architects, Namibia; Valerie Mulvin, McCullough Mulvin Architects, Eire; Sheila O'Donnell, O'Donnell + Tuomey, Eire + UK; Patricia Patkau, Patkau Architects, Canada; Estudio Carme Pinos, Espana; Samira Rathod Design Associates, Bharat Ganarajya; Maria Samaniego, arquitectura x, Ecuador; Kazuyo Sejima, Kazuyo Sejima and Associates + SANAA, Japan; Brigitte Shim, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, Canada; Sonja Petrus Spamer Architects, South Africa; Marina Tabassum Architects, Bangladesh; Kerstin Thompson Architects, Australia; Lene Tranberg, Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter A/S, Danmark; Billie Tsien, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners, USA; Claire Weisz, WXY Architecture + Urban Design, USA; Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, UK; Xu Tiantian, DnA (Design and Architecture), China; Estudio Cazu Zegers Arquitectura, Chile; Marusa Zorec, Arrea Arhitektura, Slovenija