Architecture Before Architecture: Lesabéndio as a Spatial System for ExpressionismMichael Morris This paper proposes a re-evaluation of Lesabéndio (1913) by Paul Scheerbart as a primary site of architectural thought. While typically positioned as a literary precursor to expressionist architecture, particularly in relation to the work of Bruno Taut, the novel has rarely been analysed as a spatial construct in its own right. This paper argues that Lesabéndio operates as a structured spatial system in which architecture emerges as a continuous process of environmental, perceptual, and collective transformation. Methodologically, the research combines close textual analysis with spatial mapping and diagrammatic translation. The narrative is examined through four lenses—spatial organisation, modes of construction, perceptual transformation, and material logic—in order to extract underlying spatial principles. Key episodes, including the collective construction of the tower on the asteroid Pallas, are analysed as sites of spatial production and subsequently translated into diagrams that model relationships between body, environment, and form. On this basis, the paper reconsiders the relationship between Scheerbart and Taut. Rather than framing Taut’s work as the realisation of Scheerbart’s ideas, it is positioned as a selective translation of a more expansive spatial system. This shift enables a reassessment of expressionist architecture as emerging not solely from built form, but from a broader conceptual field in which narrative operates as a primary medium of spatial thinking. By situating Lesabéndio as an architectural system rather than a literary influence, the paper challenges disciplinary boundaries and proposes an expanded definition of architectural production.
Michael Morris (Fri,) studied this question.