Part I Architecture as Poetic Creation -- Chapter 1 Contemporary Views on Architectural Creation A New Paradigm -- Chapter 2 Architectural Creation A Dichotomic Approach -- Part II The Architect as Poeta Faber Filarete and Christopher Alexander -- Chapter 3 Poíēsis and Faber Engaging the Material Aspect of Architectural Creation -- Chapter 4 Poíēsis and Poeta Toward a Perceptive and Symbolic Recovery of Architectural Creation -- Part III Postlude Didactic Poíēsis -- Chapter 5 Toward an Architectural Education Guided by Poíēsis -- Chapter 6 Embodying Poíēsis in Contemporary Architectural Education.

This volume explores the meaning of the architectural creative act, following the dynamics of the relationship between creator-creative act-creation and the way in which architecture is defined over time, as a creative act both material and symbolic. Two protagonists, Antonio Averlino (Filarete) and Christopher Alexander, are singled out under the guiding concepts of poíēsis and poeta faber. The book initiates a dialogue over time between their works and concepts, engaging two cultures, the Renaissance and the contemporary, symbolically chosen for their importance in redefining the profession through the prism of its relation to the architectural creative act. The core idea revolves around rediscovering the humanistic approach to architecture in and for the contemporary context, and using it in order to better understand architectural creation. This text appeals to students and researchers working in the history and theory of architecture, product, industrial design, and semiotics.