It would please me to contemplate inhabited spaces, guided by the interpretation of a novel – not used as a definitive script but rather as a suggestion that illuminates all the ideas of architecture within our thoughts. And I would like this world of images to be plausible, precisely because imperfect design is the expression of an architecture that can deliver unexpected results.

This is a text born out of defiance. Often, architecture books that are conceived in universities and that collate the results of this or that lecturer’s teachings do not succeed in arousing any real interest from the architecturally-minded public, and even less from insiders. These are exercises and examples that are more concerned with expressing correct positions than with venturing into unfathomed terrain. This volume, rather, aims to take up the challenge of simplifying the texts as much as possible and maximising the seductiveness of the images, turning educational experimentation into a story displaying architecture inspired by novels. It is not a question of illustrating books, but of reviving stories and spaces that are related to them, and that no one has ever seen as urban and landscape environments. This text has deliberately omitted notes and captions on the designs, to help the reader perceive them in a more fluid and immediate manner and to take the reader directly to the centre of worlds unknown.