Architecture of the Indimensionable
Architects are nothing if not prodigious dimensioners of space. Their drawings take the unruly world and submit it to the disciplinary hand of metrology: twenty foot column bays, sixteen inches on center between studs, details specified to the millimeter. All that dimensioning serves a purpose. These carefully orchestrated measures form an inside and an outside; follow the seal of a window detail, nothing is getting past that line. Or so architects like to think. But as even the most casual of horror fans knows, such security is only ever an illusion: the more pristine your house in the suburbs, the more ghastly is its past; despite your barricades, the ghouls are smashing through the windows; and that dead body you’ve hidden beneath your floorboards will rise up to haunt your dreams.
For despite architects’ allegiance to the hard logic of lines and tape measures, there is an indimensionable aspect to space—and in the indimensionable, not all is as it seems. A door is not just a door but a creaky threshold between worlds. A corridor does more than cut into a building’s rentable space, it provides passage for who knows how many unwanted travelers. Turn the light on in your basement, the darkness is gone but not its undead inhabitants. What do you see there, lurking in the boiler room? Rulers aren’t useful for charting out the indimensionable; instead one must pay attention to gut feelings. And arm hairs. Are they standing straight? That shadowy corner may have just inexplicably become a Hellmouth, you better get out of this building quickly, its plans have changed.
This book explores these horrific spatial unknowns. It gathers together a collection of essays, interviews and drawings sourced from experts in the indimensionable: haunted house designers, ghost hunters, horror writers and those rare architectural practitioners who aren’t afraid to cast their eyes towards terrors they cannot meter. It has a page count and a table of contents. It is exactly 4.625 x 7 x .75 inches. But we can never truly dimension the horrors that will spring forth from its pages . . .
familiars books #1
coptic binding, plastic cacket, 276 pages. 4.625 x 7 x .75 inches.
published: 26 August 201
Architects are nothing if not prodigious dimensioners of space. Their drawings take the unruly world and submit it to the disciplinary hand of metrology: twenty foot column bays, sixteen inches on center between studs, details specified to the millimeter. All that dimensioning serves a purpose. These carefully orchestrated measures form an inside and an outside; follow the seal of a window detail, nothing is getting past that line. Or so architects like to think. But as even the most casual of horror fans knows, such security is only ever an illusion: the more pristine your house in the suburbs, the more ghastly is its past; despite your barricades, the ghouls are smashing through the windows; and that dead body you’ve hidden beneath your floorboards will rise up to haunt your dreams.
For despite architects’ allegiance to the hard logic of lines and tape measures, there is an indimensionable aspect to space—and in the indimensionable, not all is as it seems. A door is not just a door but a creaky threshold between worlds. A corridor does more than cut into a building’s rentable space, it provides passage for who knows how many unwanted travelers. Turn the light on in your basement, the darkness is gone but not its undead inhabitants. What do you see there, lurking in the boiler room? Rulers aren’t useful for charting out the indimensionable; instead one must pay attention to gut feelings. And arm hairs. Are they standing straight? That shadowy corner may have just inexplicably become a Hellmouth, you better get out of this building quickly, its plans have changed.
This book explores these horrific spatial unknowns. It gathers together a collection of essays, interviews and drawings sourced from experts in the indimensionable: haunted house designers, ghost hunters, horror writers and those rare architectural practitioners who aren’t afraid to cast their eyes towards terrors they cannot meter. It has a page count and a table of contents. It is exactly 4.625 x 7 x .75 inches. But we can never truly dimension the horrors that will spring forth from its pages . . .
familiars books #1
coptic binding, plastic cacket, 276 pages. 4.625 x 7 x .75 inches.
published: 26 August 201
oh boy,
Table of Contents
Dear Stephen
Matthew Wagstaffe
Night Scream
Steven Rodriguez
Remains
Interview with Liam Gast
Haunted Houses
James Coleman
Ghost Hunter
Interview with Steve Gonsalves
Junkspace Gothic
Interview with Will Wiles
Witch House
Nicholas Miller & Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Witch’s Dungeon
Rosa McElheny
Spirit Halloween
Interview with Dave B.
Fright Haven
Interview with Charles Rosenay
Candy Carbon Footprint
Ethan Zisson
A Haunting at the Beinecke
Interview with Kathryn James
Drafting Hill House
Shirley Jackson
Conversing with Ghosts
Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen
Suburbs
Nicholas Miller & Matthew Wagstaffe
Walgreens Story
Matthew Wagstaffe
The Dwarf of Furka Blick
Nicholas Miller & Peter Eisenman
Midwestern Demonology
Maia Simon
Lovecraft’s America
Michelle Oing
Human Antenna
Interview with Kristen Gallerneaux
Town & Monster
Jacob Schaffert
Objects in Mirror
Hyung Cho and Steven Rodriguez
Dear Stephen
Matthew Wagstaffe
Night Scream
Steven Rodriguez
Remains
Interview with Liam Gast
Haunted Houses
James Coleman
Ghost Hunter
Interview with Steve Gonsalves
Junkspace Gothic
Interview with Will Wiles
Witch House
Nicholas Miller & Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Witch’s Dungeon
Rosa McElheny
Spirit Halloween
Interview with Dave B.
Fright Haven
Interview with Charles Rosenay
Candy Carbon Footprint
Ethan Zisson
A Haunting at the Beinecke
Interview with Kathryn James
Drafting Hill House
Shirley Jackson
Conversing with Ghosts
Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen
Suburbs
Nicholas Miller & Matthew Wagstaffe
Walgreens Story
Matthew Wagstaffe
The Dwarf of Furka Blick
Nicholas Miller & Peter Eisenman
Midwestern Demonology
Maia Simon
Lovecraft’s America
Michelle Oing
Human Antenna
Interview with Kristen Gallerneaux
Town & Monster
Jacob Schaffert
Objects in Mirror
Hyung Cho and Steven Rodriguez