RUMLIG KULTUR / SPATIAL CULTURE præsenterer et humanvidenskabeligt livtag med storbyens erfaringsverden. Emnerne for 21 kapitler spænder fra billedhuggeren Bjørn Nørgaard og boligbyggeriet Bispebjerg Bakke til stedsopfattelsen i moderne guidebøger. Undervjs inddrages bykulturens tænkere såsom Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin og Michel de Certeau. Kulturvidenskabelige begreber og metoder aktiveres i analyser af kulturelle rum, for eksempel Daniel Libeskinds museer, mørket på Christiania, genopbygningen af Dresdens Frauenkirche og historierne bag Berlins Tempelhof-Lufthavn. Også kunstneriske værker som Per Højholts radioversion af Turbo, postmoderne dans i New York og fiske fremstilling af Hongkomg indgår i tolkningerne af urbanitet og æstetik. Analyserne fordeler sig i fem sektioner om arkitektur, byrum, tekstualitet, erindring og steder. Tilsammen skitserer bogens artikler et forskningsfelt for rumlig kultur, hvori alskens sanse- og refleksionsformer finder sammen.

Based in humanistic urban studies as practiced in the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, SPATIAL CULTURE outlines a novel framework for understanding the social and cultural environments of the modern and contemporary metropolis. The contributions focus on urban and suburban cultures of Copenhagen, New York, Hong Kong, Berlin and anderswo, demonstrating how the precise analysis of cultural and artistic phenomena informs a multilayered understanding of the relationships between urbanity and aesthetics. The articles span five realms: sensory and conceptual architecture, urban spaces, aesthetic textualities, collective memory, and spatial consciousness, all of which contribute to establishing spatial culture as an important field of research within the humanities.

Considerable parts of the volume are in both English and Danish. Along with the introductory chapter by Henrik Reeh, Associate Professor of Humanistic Urban Studies and Modern Culture, University of Copenhagen, and the final essay by Albertó Pérez-Gómez, Professor of the History of Architecture, McGill University, the substantial captions of more than 100 illustrations make SPATIAL CULTURE accessible to an international readership. All contributions contain abstracts in English.