Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how the formation of dream images as described by Sigmund Freud can be used as a model for architectural design and composition. Architecture is capable of enacting and expressing human identity, thought, and consciousness, and the rules of dream formation as described by Freud can easily be applied to architectural composition processes. In relating the Freudian dream theories to architecture, it will be helpful to include the post-Freudian theories of Jacques Lacan, which specifically relate Freud’s theories on dream formation to language and linguistic mechanisms, which can be directly applied to architectural composition strategies.