There are as many metaphorical subtleties in architecture as there are in language, maybe more. The metaphorical power of architecture is inescapable and has many dimensions.

…metaphors in architecture are generally thought of not as treacherous sources of delusion but as (to use an architectural metaphor) cornerstones of creativity.

But that is the danger of metaphors: they can be overstretched, innocently or intentionally, as an attempt at polemic or rhetorical advantage.

In a creative activity such as architecture, metaphor is less a threat to objective truth and more (to use another architectural metaphor) an arena of conceptual vitality – an arena being a performance area shareable with others.

In language, metaphors tend to occur in passing; in architecture they are more consequential.

…we use metaphor to help portray an integrated sense of the world to ourselves and to each other. Sense is different from truth, even though we might sometimes think of them as being the same. Where ‘truth’ claims to be absolute, ‘sense’ recognises relativity…

We might think of metaphor as a device belonging to the poetry of words but metaphor can also be non-verbal – visual, spatial, experiential… Metaphor is essential to the poetry of architecture too.

The metaphors of architecture are protean ghosts haunting a many roomed labyrinth. They morph and fuse, subtly mutating perceptions; like distorting glass. When you look more closely you realise that the labyrinth of architectural ideology is ruled by those protean ghosts.

All architecture is, metaphorically, a shadow cast on a cave wall. Architecture is a version of the truth – a version of sense – proposed by the architect and realised in the physical form of buildings and the identification of places for inhabitation.