In case you're not familiar with the source material, BLDGBLOG is one of my favorite blogs out there. The tagline is Architectural Conjecture, Urban Speculation, Landscape Futures; in practice, this works out to be a mix of everything imaginable (and a fair amount of stuff that is barely so).

The organizing feature of this viewpoint is understanding the shape of the world as inescapably tied to its function, the aesthetic as more than just aesthetic. Manaugh asks us to consider the possibilities inherent in the sky, under the ground, and everywhere in between. Essays, interviews, and artwork serve as a stream-of-consciousness, allowing us to thread our way through Manaugh's dreams and nightmares of the world.

This sounds like a dry work of academic criticism, but it's the closest descendant I've found to Jorge Luis Borges' short fiction. Manaugh loves to spin off outlines of short-stories, pulling real drama and excitement out of what could be mere dry wisdom. He never forgets that - in the end - our surroundings are ultimately processed and received by us. Even his lifeless landscapes are viewed through the lens of humanity.

This might be what stops his stuff from being widely-cited within the formal field of architecture, but it makes his book into a series of adventures and one of my favorite recent reads. Very cool.