Ceilings and Dreams

"This erudite and supremely entertaining collection of essays demonstrates historical and present relationships between architecture’s all-important oneiric dimension and the sense of levity motivated by a consideration of ceilings: the vertical dimension of architecture that gives it wings. Imaginary flight, 'winged eros,' is a crucial human gift, our capacity to travel upwards folded with our intimation of transcendence." - Dr. Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Bronfman Professor of Architectural History and Theory, McGill University

"Offering the ceiling as a site of inquiry can seem trivial or even frivolous in the face of so many weighty contemporary issues, but these reflections on the surfaces that hover above our heads provide a thoroughly engaging contribution to a topical philosophy of architecture." - Professor William W. Braham, University of Pennsylvania

"'Ceilings are vertical thresholds extending lived space into dream space and dream space into lived space,' writes Paul Emmons in his evocative introduction to this crucial and dreamy anthology he edited with Federica Goffi and Jodi La Coe. The debasement of ceilings during the 20th century has been one of the banes of my (taller-than-average) existence, and so what could be more necessary than a critical investigation of this state of affairs, both architectural and oneiric?" - Oliver Botar, University of Manitoba School of Art