Philosophy of Architecture - AV

Philosophy of architecture – appendix 11: Architecture in ancient and early modern thought

For Plato, architecture is a progress through accurate measurement. It is part of the practical disciplines aligned with techne in contrast to gnostics or episteme, intended in this sense as instruction or command, as if it were a managerial knowledge. Aristotle talks extensively of architecture, making it not the central aspect of his reasoning, but a secondary aspect. He focuses mainly on what is the main object of architecture for home. Plotin, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Descartes face the problem based on what Plato said. It is Francesco Bacone who places architectural matter exceptionally in a non-instrumental model. In your utility essay, remains a focal point.

German enlightenment: Wolff, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer ingenuity

Architecture begins to be counted among the arts by Batteux (1746). Wolff sees architecture as a scientific discipline, empirical art of invention as physics and medicine. For him, Greek architecture is a model and assumes the Vitruvian triad as an imperative; structural aspects must tend to beauty and be visible to the spectator. For Kant, success in architectural design is related to aesthetics and to idealize notions of functions, structure, and physics that govern it. It also lays the foundations for the next formalism, for which: a) the aesthetic judgment must be similar among different people; and b) it is better understood if it is separate from other meanings that the work may have.

For Hegel, architecture is the culmination of the arts in the expression of a generally cognitive content and encourages a progressive acquisition of freedom from discipline from symbolism to the attainment of the "absolute spirit." Schopenhauer, on the other hand, classifies architecture among the lowest art forms. It reveals its gravity and rigidity but admits its capabilities as a carrier of light. The aesthetic architectural features must first emphasize gravity and rigidity, referring to load and support.

The science of aesthetics and Einfühlung traditions

Art and its qualities are subject to scientific analysis at the same level as formal and natural sciences, so they can be explained, measured, and diffused. Henry Noble Day first outlines aesthetics as a science even though aesthetics has a more metaphorical and literal refuge meaning. The idea of sensation and perception measurements is also here, as in Aristotle, the fundamental idea of architecture. Helmholtz sketches the first measurements of preferences in people. Wundt and Fechner propose a measure of sensations and experiences in the lab.

Volkelt was the first to understand that measuring the sensations and experiences in the lab abstracted from a whole host of other abstractions and complications. For this reason, he and the subsequent theorists of the Einfühlung promoted the understanding of empathic experience as an alternative approach to cognition and appreciation of art and architecture. Goller develops an architectural profile so that a set of architectural forms is a style that is nothing more than a set of temporally and culturally local psychological standards and features.

Continental traditions

They dominate the scene of the twentieth century especially with regard to philosophical output and its influence on architectural theory. They are divided into three major branches:

• Phenomenology - some questioned our ability to read the world objectively. Alternatively, they offer an intersubjective vision based on the experience we have, firsthand, in the world. The first step in this direction is that of Merleau-Ponty, arguing that our existence in the world can be better understood by understanding how it is shaped by our experience of what surrounds us. Experience thus emerges as the main characteristic in understanding the architectural object. At this point two exploration paths are opened for architectural phenomenologists, trying to explain how experience influences the design of the built environment. Heidegger suggests that the ultimate goal of building something else is not creating a square, but connecting the spaces around the built space and consequently implementing the human relationships that underpin this spatial bond. Potential problems arise: for some there are limits to what our buildings experience can tell us about the buildings themselves; For others, our experience alone cannot guarantee the objectivity required because aesthetic judgment also applies in other cultural contexts. This leaves phenomenological analysis deeply confined to precise cultural contexts. Ingarden extends phenomenological theory also to purely intentional art objects. For him it is crucial that architect and user give identity to the architectural object. Ingarden's interest in the creative act of experience characterizes the second exploration path: how consciousness influences the design of the built environment.
• Hermeneutics - Accessing an architectural object means accessing the project users. The architect designs but our understanding of the building as users needs to get inside.
• Post-structuralism - the meanings and references of a building are taken by the creator, especially because they are linked to precise contexts and political agendas. For Foucault, in this regard, two suggestions arise: 1) architecture can be a means of suppression and power; 2) Architects who design suppression and power architectures alone are not able to control themselves.

The analytic tradition: Goodman, Scruton, and beyond

Despite its concrete nature, architecture is capable of modeling space even through abstract tools. Goodman suggests that architectural objects work in three ways:

1. Through the denotation - to make the viewer understand a particular characteristic relevant to making him always present (usually a form);
2. Through the exemplification - highlight in the project a wider feature of the structure;
3. Through the expression - metaphorical exemplification of a characteristic that may seem to characterize the structure, but which literally is not.

Scruton outlines the importance of imagination in perception and especially in the formation of aesthetic judgment. He proposes that our ability to see and create architectural beauty is integral to practical reasoning integrated in architecture and related decorative and applied arts. The architectural judgment integrated by the imagination emerges in the exercise of taste, deployed to the appropriate from the point of view of style and scale. If taste exercise indicates values relevant to our architecture experience there can be an extension in the moral sphere for which we would like beauty and aesthetic values to be promoted not only to us but also to others. Graham argues that the main problem of architectural aesthetics is to embody a synthesis of artistic and utilitarian values, and also that the best way to relate to architecture is in appropriation rather than just appreciation.

Philosophy of architecture – appendix 21: Philosophy and the tradition of architectural theory

While the philosophy of architecture is a sub-discipline of recent origin, architectural theory still has ancient origins. Historically, great architects contributed to architectural knowledge not only in works designed but also in theoretical works to which the task was to spread their knowledge to others. Architectural theory plays a fundamental role in the transmission of knowledge especially during the Renaissance. These are prescriptions that recommend exercising and learning architectural discipline through practice. This concept is found in Vitruvius and in many of his successors. In essence, the ten books in which De Architectura is subdivided, they see architecture as the result of creating, making, and ingenious.

The greatest Vitruvian contributions consist of the identification of the three famous principles: firmitas, utilitas et venustas translated as, structural integrity, utility and beauty. These are paving the way for achieving the highest architectural values. A further contribution to architectural theory of Renaissance matrix is that of Leon Battista Alberti who has implemented a renewal of the principles of Vitruvio. With enlightenment, the focus of attention focuses on human nature and the diversity of human experiences, and for this reason theoreticians like Laugier present architectural projects.