Architectural Gestures in International Relations

Abstract

Somaesthetics is useful in thinking about how buildings gesture. Analysis and interpretation of three embassies – the Belgian and US embassies in New Delhi, India and the Finnish Embassy in Canberra, Australia, offer insight into the nature of architectural gestures. Philosophically, attention to soma serves to reconcile the normative sweep of Kant’s political thought with the attention to granularity demanded by Wittgenstein.