Geography and Architecture

Abstract

This article uses the much-written-about city of Paris to explore the relationship between geography and architecture, drawing on one building, 11, rue du Conservatoire. The article addresses a number of questions that concern buildings as objects of geographical study and the way in which we can theorise a building as being a permeable object. Permeability is an important issue for us to study, as it defines the way in which actors pass from one space to another. In doing so, this article considers the role and use of technology in enabling the interaction of a building's internal spaces with the spaces traditionally seen as being outside of it. This article therefore addresses the following questions: What is the boundary of a building? How do we theorise movement across a building's boundary(s)? This is followed by an examination of the benefits that an approach drawn from actor network theory has in writing a geography of architecture.