Thinking Space: Readings from a Life in Architecture traces Leon van Schaik's personal library to map the relationship between the books we collect and the spatial intelligence that defines how we inhabit and understand the world. A rare work of architectural autobiography.
About This Book
At its core, Thinking Space is a meditation on how reading shapes the architectural mind. Van Schaik's argument is precise: our accumulated experiences in physical space form a mental architecture — a spatial intelligence — that in turn governs how we perceive, design, and act. The vehicle for this argument is his own library, built over decades of teaching and research. Moving through its shelves, he identifies the texts that became conceptual touchstones, revealing the often intimate relationships behind each acquisition. The result is part intellectual memoir, part philosophy of inhabitation — a sustained reflection on art, poetry, and place that will resonate with architects, educators, and anyone who has found their thinking shaped by the built environment.
Key Features
- 148 pages of architectural memoir, criticism, and personal library curation
- By Leon van Schaik AO, Emeritus Professor of Architecture, RMIT University
- Shortlisted for the DAM Architectural Book Award 2025, Deutsches Architekturmuseum
- Published by Uro Publications, 2025
What You'll Discover
- How spatial intelligence — the accumulation of past experiences in physical space — shapes the mental frameworks through which architects think and make decisions
- The personal and intellectual histories behind key texts in van Schaik's library, and why certain books function as lasting conceptual references rather than mere sources
- A philosophy of inhabitation that draws on art, poetry, and philosophy to argue for a more nuanced, discerning approach to architectural knowledge
- An intimate model for how a life of reading, collecting, and teaching produces a distinct architectural intelligence over time
About the Author
Leon van Schaik AO is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at RMIT University. His recent publications include Doing, Seeing; Seeing, Doing (Uro Publications, 2021), Kerstin Thompson Architects (Thames and Hudson, 2021), and Suburbia Reimagined (co-authored with Nigel Bertram, Routledge, 2018).
Specifications
- Format: Softcover with jacket, layflat binding
- Pages: 148
- Dimensions: 168 x 240mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781922601322
- Publisher: Uro Publications
- Publication Date: 2025
Perfect For: Architects and educators interested in the theory of spatial intelligence, design students grappling with how ideas form, and readers drawn to the intersection of architectural thinking, philosophy, and personal memoir.