What If? Collected Writings 1986-2000 by Paolo Soleri

Paolo Soleri's What If? Collected Writings 1986-2000 is a meticulously crafted collection of essays, hypotheses, and reflections by one of the most provocative and influential architects and thinkers of the modern era. Encompassing the mature thought of a distinguished career, it is a major contribution to such diverse fields as Philosophy, Religious Studies, Urban Design, Architectural Theory, Ecology, Environmental Ethics, and related disciplines and should be on the reading list of any student of these areas.

It includes thirty-nine previously unpublished essays divided into two major sections. Book One, "Space", lays the groundwork for Soleri's assertion that reality is space and for his Lean Hypothesis, which works around that notion. Book Two, "Esthequity and Religion", builds on Book One to suggest ways that the esthetic can move us toward self-revelation without the theological delusions which, he argues, have held us back so long.