Bachelard implicitly urges architects to base their work on the experiences it will engender rather than on abstract rationales that may or may not affect viewers and users of architecture.

In 1964, the Orion Press, Inc. published the book, with a foreword by the philosopher Étienne Gilson, in an English translation by the writer Maria Jolas.

[3][4][5] In 2014, Penguin Books published an edition with a foreword by the novelist Mark Z. Danielewski and an introduction by the philosopher Richard Kearney.

[6][7][8] The Poetics of Space has influenced the philosophers Paul Ricœur and Edward S. Casey,[9][10] and the critic Camille Paglia.

However, he added that neither Heidegger nor Bachelard "adequately assessed the role of the human body in the experience of significant places.

"[12] Paglia identified The Poetics of Space as an influence on her work of literary criticism Sexual Personae (1990).

[14] Other authors who have praised The Poetics of Space include Gilson,[15] Stilgoe,[16] Kearney,[17] and the philosopher Gary Gutting.