The construction of architecture

This paper will proceed, via a brief discussion of Hans-Georg Gadamer—s anti-aesthetics of architecture, to outline why the architectural metaphor in philosophy is never simply a metaphor, using as a guide the critique of origins and sources contained in Jacques Derrida—s essay Qual Quelle. The question will be raised as to whether the tools and structures of philosophy, such as the difference between materiality and non-materiality, abstract thought and practice, are entirely adequate to architectural debate; and whether, in questioning these structures, it is possible to address Bataille—s critique of architecture (as interpreted in Denis Hollier—s Against Architecture) as the expression of pre-existing social order and power.