Metaphors in architectural theory and poetic urbanism: Flânerie and drift within the surrealist perception of the city

Abstract

The history of architecture has been marked by the study of architectural treatises and the ornamental forms, or the lack of them in buildings. However, there is a deeper ground regarding not only architectural theory but also urban planning, especially the one corresponding to the 20th century. In this sense, we are going to focus on the Surrealist Movement and its literary work in order to understand its urban practice. The Surreal City is something purely theoretical, something that was not carried out during the surreal stage, but whose spectra and signals can be seen in the aesthetic and ideological basis that was used in the construction of other cities or contemporary urban spaces. From this study we will end up with a broader knowledge of the theoretical architecture and surreal urbanism of Paris at the beginning of the 20th century through the study of its literary sources. The surreal symbolic spaces will have an assimilation with the contemporaneity in which we live, which will reflect the timelessness of the public spaces of this stage of history.