Comment habiter le monde ? Michel Houellebecq architecte

ABSTRACT

In Michel Houellebecq’s criticism and novels, a scathing critique of functionalist architecture is at work. For him, this architecture seems to have become the tool by which the « market society » structures contemporary space according to it’s own demands. How, then, is it possible to inhabit the world? The architectural imagination of Houellebecq’s work is at odds with functionalism, rather deriving from impossible (such as nature) or anachronistic models (cathedrals). It is, however, possible to pinpoint a number of architectural techniques that resonate with the construction and style of Houellebecq’s novels, suggesting that—in an uninhabitable world—literature presents itself as the sole possible refuge for the author and his readers.