For around six decades Günther Feuerstein tirelessly published manifestos, academic studies and hooks on the history and theory of architecture. This rich oeuvre on theory remains for the most part unresearched. Following the experience of the destruction caused by the war and the dreary functionalisin of the post-war reconstruction era, Feuerstein's thinking burst through the narrow material boundaries of architecture: "If we speak of an expanded architecture then the city, the world, indeed the cosmos are to be included". Feuerstein began this in his dissertation "Archetypes of Building" (1966), which until now has only existed as "grey" literature. A classic variety of basic types forms his foundation of architecture: the upright, the accumulation, the circle, and the cross. Despite the similarity in the wording, this symbolic tetralogy is the opposite of Gottfried Semper's material one, the hearth, the roof, the enclosure, and the mound (1851),which is meant completely materialistically. Semper provided a basis for orthodox modernism, which Feuerstein wanted to overcome and expand with his works on building symbolism: Androgyne Architektur (1997), Androgyne Architektur Ⅱ. Coincidentia opposi-torum (1999), and Biomorphe Architektur (2002). Not least importantly, Hans Hollein's "Alles ist Architektur" (1967) found its basis in Feuerstein's influential ideas about expansion. They worked together in the editorial office of the Vienna avant-garde journal "Bau" (1965-1970). At irregular intervals Feuerstein also published the magazine "Transparent. iManuskripte für Architektur, Theorie, Kritik, Polemik, Umraum" (19 issues, 1970-1988). Feuerstein was also a worthy chronicler of Vienna's post-war avant-garde, which he documented from the viewpoint of an insider in the book and travelling exhibition "Vision?re Architektur Wien 1958/88". His historical studies dealt with "Wiener Bauten 1900 bis heute" (1964), "Moderne Kunst in ?sterreich" (1965) and "Wien, heute und gestern: Architektur, Stadtbild, Umraum" (1974). Leafing through the rich treasure trove of material that Feuerstein put together over his long life as a researcher, one discerns a paradox: he wanted to overcome materialism using its own encyclopaedic methods. In a strictly schematic way the catalogue of his dissertation documents three projects per page, using short text and image descriptions: no. 1 is "Black Square" by Kazimir Malevich, no. 594 a sandcastle built by children on a beach.
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