High Rises, Hobbit Holes and Howards End: Architecture and the Novel

Author David Annand will open the workshop with a talk on how creating a fictional building allowed him to give free rein to his frustrated inner architect. He’ll then go to talk about some of fiction’s great buildings from Ballard’s high rise to Mr Biswas’s house, and the literary techniques used to conjure them into existence. He will then lead the group as they collectively create a fictional realm. It might a postmodern novel set in Prague in 1892. Or a sci-fi story set on Jupiter in 2322. The group will then divide into teams, each of which will be asked to produce a presentation on a fictional building that fits the narrative, a restaurant, say, or a skyscraper. They’ll be asked to write a paragraph or two describing the building, and create a visual presentation of it using drawings, collage or clay.