What is a singular object? An idea, a building, a color, a sentiment, a human being. Each in turn comes under scrutiny in this exhilarating dialogue between two of the most interesting thinkers working in philosophy and architecture today. From such singular objects, Jean Baudrillard and Jean Nouvel move on to fundamental problems of politics, identity, and aesthetics as their exchange becomes an imaginative exploration of the possibilities of modern architecture and the future of modern life.Among the topics the two speakers take up are the city of tomorrow and the ideal of transparency, the gentrification of New York City and Frank Gehry's surprising Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. As Nouvel prompts Baudrillard to reflect on some of his signature concepts (the virtual, transparency, fatal strategies, oblivion, and seduction, among others), the confrontation between such philosophical concerns and the specificity of architecture gives rise to novel and striking formulations -- and a new way of establishing and understanding the connections between the practitioner and the philosopher, the object and the idea.This wide-ranging conversation builds a bridge between the fields of architecture and philosophy. At the same time it offers readers an intimate view of the meeting of objects and ideas in which the imagined, constructed, and inhabited environment is endlessly changing, forever evolving.

作者简介：

让·鲍德里亚，哲学家、作家，曾在多所国外大学任教。同时，他创作出众多摄影作品。他写作了许多论著，特别是《论诱惑》（伽利马，1988）、《恶的透明度》（伽利马，1990）、《不可能的交易》（伽利马，1999）。

让·努维尔，国际知名建筑师，曾设计建筑阿拉伯世界文化中心和卡地亚当代艺术基金会。他的设计被巴黎国家凯布朗利博物馆采用。

译者简介：

周莽，1971年生，北京大学法语系副教授，研究法国中世纪文学和法语史，从事法语社科人文翻译，译有勒高夫《试谈另一个中世纪》、托多罗夫《不完美的花园》等。