History and Theory of Architecture IX: Philosophy for Architects

Abstract

The lecture course offers discussions on the presence of philosophical issues in the current discourse of architecture.

Objective

The objective of the course is to provide tools for a critical assessment, and practical application, of arguments at the intersection of philosophy and architecture.

Content

Philosopher Sylviane AGACINSKI raised the issue in the mid-1980s whether philosophical concepts such as that of inwardness were not unthinkable before the spatially effective activity of architecture, just as the tomb cannot be separated from the idea of a soul. Other thinkers held that philosophy is groundwork per se, that is, a precondition also for the «fundaments» of architecture. A third branch tried to cope generally with the presence of architectural metaphors in philosophical writings. The lecture course discusses architectural topics around this kind of semiotic triangle in theory and practice with reference to (phenomenological) presence and absence, (digital and linguistic) codes, the subconscious, (female) chora, and the (colonizing) anthropocene along the lines of writers such as Homi K. Bhabha, Ethel CHARLES, Hélène CIXOUS, Jacques DERRIDA, Elizabeth GROSZ, Donna HARAWAY, bell HOOKS, Luce IRIGARAY, Julia KRISTEVA, Henri LEFEBVRE, Achille MBEMBE, Legacy Russells, Isabelle STENGERS, and Victoria WELBY, together with their presence, or absence, in the current discourse on architecture.

Resources