Exploring Architectural Theories and Philosophy

The assignment explores various readings on architectural theory and philosophy, drawing from authors such as Deleuze, Heidegger, and Husserl. It includes excerpts on topics like minor literature, phenomenology, and the relationship between building, dwelling, and thinking. The readings are sourced from academic publications, books, and articles, providing a comprehensive understanding of architectural theories and philosophies.

Running head: ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CONCEPTS
Architecture and its Concepts
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CONCEPTS
Urbanism
The term urbanism refers to the way of life. The concept of urbanism alludes to the
dispersal of urban culture. Urbanism one the major concepts of architecture, through which
architects design structure of an urban area. The term has been interpreted in many ways.
According to some school of thought,1urbanism refers to the planning of society based on
some principles, which have been followed since past several centuries regarding building
architecture, by which ways of interaction of the natives of urban areas can be studied.
Urbanism includes the physical design of the building and structures along with its
management. Sociology of urban areas is also a part of urbanism. Sociologist or architects
study the factors related to population in urban are2. For instance, they study that why people
in a city, what are the facilities they get, why the city is densely populated and so on.
Therefore, it can be said that urbanism is a continuous changing concept. It is the way of
developing urban life pattern. It is to be noted that urbanism does not mean a city; rather it
means the lifestyle of the people living in an area where population density is observed.
Hence, there are certain characteristics of urbanism exist according to Louis Wirth:
transiency, superficiality, anonymity, and individualism. Transiency has been marked Louis
Writh as the first characteristics of urbanism3. He opines that in an urban society, the relation
1Pallasmaa, Julian. "The Geometry of Feeling." In Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of
Architectural Theory 1965-1995, by Kate Nesbitt. New York: Princenton Architectural Press, 1996.448. 44
2Holl, Steven, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Pérez Gómez."An Architecture of the Seven Senses." In Questions
of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture.San Francisco, CA: William Stout Publishers, 2006.30. 45
3 Fishman, Robert. 'Beyond Suburbia: The Rise of the Technoburb' in The City Reader. Edited by Richard T.
LeGates and Frederick Stout.5th ed. Abringdon: Routledge/Taylor and Francis, 2011, 76-83.

2ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CONCEPTS
between the residents long for a very short time. When an inhabitant shift to a new city, he
generally does not remain attached with the old connection, soon he develops contacts with
new people. As a result, when he leaves the city again, it has been observed that he does not
hesitate leaving the old city. Superficiality is another characterizes of urbanism according to
Writh. People of urban are mainly keep a formal relation with each other. They remain very
limited while building relations with others. The inhabitants meet each other and build
relationship to satisfy their personal requirements. Anonymity is the other characteristic of
urbanism, where urban people do not engage with each other intimately. Mutual
understanding between each other that are often found in the rural people is not there in urban
societies4. Individualism is another characteristic as mentioned by Writh. He says people of
urban area prioritize something if they think that their interest lies in it. City, urban society,
urbanization are some of the words that indicated the physical definition of an urban society.
As soon as people hear these terms, they get an idea of the social structure of the area. For
instance, the lifestyle of the city dwellers is completely different from the villagers. Urbanism
reflects the complex social structure, where inhabitants are interdependent on each other in
order to fulfill the economic functions. Urbanism helps the architects to plan the structure of a
new city or town. Keeping the modernization as well as past principles in mind designers set
the strategies5. With the advancement, new urbanism has become the priority in city or urban
planning. It is the practice of designing urban areas through which architects make strategies
4 Ballon, Hilary, and Kenneth T. Jackson.Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New
York. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. 66.
5 Balez, Olivier, and Pierre Christin.Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City. London: Nobrow
Press, 2014.

3ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CONCEPTS
to create environment friendly urban cities and towns. As per the global scenario, the idea of
new urbanism has been largely adopted by most of the developed countries.
Post structuralism
The progression of the movement called structuralism influenced by the Ferdinand De
Saussure, the Swiss linguist is known as post-structuralism6. Structuralism refers to the
process of the system to form their every independent component to signify a meaning. Both
post structuralism and structuralism are two versatile movements, which refer to a complete
different approach of architecture. It also proposes the connection between them. The
perspective towards the world, which points the permanent structure and the connection
among things, is defined as structuralism. Post structuralism suggests the approach that there
is nothing but the structure exists. The approach of post structuralism enables the architect to
think independently and without considering its relationship with other components in its
sphere. A good instance of post structuralism in terms of architecture can be the Wexner
Center of Eisenman on the campus of Ohio State. The architect Eisenman while designing the
building went against the traditional practices of architecture and. He did not follow the
obvious general guidelines of architecture. Therefore, it can be said that post structuralism
generates individualistic ideas and it does not stick to the hard and fast rule of architecture or
designing of structures. Post structuralism and deconstruction are frequently linked with Post-
structuralism. The reason behind this is, all of these movements are respondent to
structuralism7. During the Modernism era, architecture was considered as communication that
6 Jacobs, Jane. "Introduction." In The Death and Life of Great American Cities.New York: Random House,
1961.3.7 Jacobs, Jane. "The Use of Sidewalks: safety." In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, New
York: Random House, 1961. 29.
7 BrankoMitrovic, Philosophy for Architects .New York:Princeton Architectural Press, 2011. 162.

4ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CONCEPTS
depicts American architect Louis Sullivan’s form and principle of ‘form, follows function’.
However, the post modernism’s former movement and deconstruction were differed by
Charles Jencks and Peter Eisenman respectively. Jencks discovered that the primary issue of
modernism is the communication since the modern architects rejected traditional architecture.
They started practicing to design buildings, which were ‘functional’. Post modernism is
distinguished as the combination of traditional building with modern techniques, i.e.,
‘double-coding’. Modern architecture tends to produce new ideas of architecture on one hand.
On the other, post-modern architecture, merge the ideas of modern as well as traditional
architecture. Meanwhile, deconstruction is the movement of architecture that began in the
1980s. Distinguished by fragmentation, it proposes a complete different view of the surface
of the structure. Structuralism focuses on structural, binary, and hierarchical concept, but
poststructuralism revolves around the concept of between things. It promotes the relation or
connectivity between traditional and modern techniques of architecture. According to post
structuralism concept, an object needs to be understood. To be very specific, study of the
object and the knowledge system is essential.
Phenomenology
The philosophical approach, phenomenology was introduced by German philosopher
Edmund Husseri in the 1800s.In terms of philosophy; phenomenology alludes to the study of
human awareness8. Husseri describes in his ‘The EncyclopediaBritannica’, that architectural
phenomenology is rather an approach of psychology that revolves around many aspects
8 Norberg-Schulz, Christian. "The Phenomenon of Place." In Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An
Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, by Kate Nesbitt. New York: Princenton Architectural Press,
1996.422.

5ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CONCEPTS
human experience9. It can be interpreted as the study of both visual factors as well as human
conscience regarding architecture. Architectural phenomenology refers to the reaction of
human sensory to the built environment or space. In order to generate phenomena, different
textures, colors and other materials are used by architectures. Many architects and scholars
have interpreted phenomenology. Some theories and concepts influenced many architects
later. Martin Heidegger is one of them, who deserve mention to have an impact on architects
or designers10. According to Martin Heidegger, phenomenology is the approach, in which
building is described for the purpose to dwell. He defines that it is the art of creating or
generating a feeling of quality space inside the building. To be very specific, the feeling of
staying at home is the crucial part of phenomenal architecture. Later many architects were
influenced by Heidegger’s philosophy of phenomenology. To be named, one of them was
Christian Norberg-Schulz, who first attempted phenomenological concept in architecture.
According to Schulz, perception is indivisible part of previous knowledge. He says that
previous experience of human is the result of what is perceived about things11. As per his
thought, perception of every single person is extremely subjective in terms of his or her
experiences. Therefore, it creates a factor of limitation to the phenomenological approach of
architecture. These days, architectures as well as individuals give importance to exterior of a
9 Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. "Chapter 3, What Is Minor Literature?" In Kafka: Toward a Minor
Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. 16.
10 Mitrovic, Branko. "'Foucault, Deleuze and Guttari'" In Philosophy for Architects; Architecture Briefs. New
York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011.167
11 Heidegger, Martin. "Building, Dwelling, Thinking." In Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural
Theory, by Neil Leach.New York: Routledge, 1997.100.

6ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CONCEPTS
building. As a result, architectures or designers neglect the reality of building experience. The
Finnish architect, Juhani Pallasmaa said that the art of designing does not depend on the
physical aspect of the building by it lies in the experience of human being and in
theirconsciousness12. His thought inspires the architecture to design in order to achieve the
human experience without giving much attention to physical aspect of building.He criticized
modern phenomenology in terms of architecture considers certain factors like space, form
and light13. The concept of architecture generally focuses on the human requirement.
Phenomenological architecture therefore aims to design building considering human
consciousness in order to produce a great architectural experience and have a memorable
influence on the end users. Architecture is an art of creation, where architects experiments
their creativity. They merge the modern aspect of architecture with the traditional theories of
architecture14. Phenomenology is such an approach where architects gives importance to the
creation of rich atmosphere in which users can get engage with the environment of the
building, can get the essence of ‘being at home’ and can cherish that experience over time.
Among the scholars, Neil Leach said that phenomenology is associated with the work that
engages the one’s four senses vision, touch, smell, and sound. He opines that phenomenology
in architecture gives importance to the space. According to him, the space must be physically
experienced and but it is not only about physical space but regarding mental space too.
Through human experience, physical environment of a building is always related to mental
environment. Therefore, the aim of the architecture should be creating such a structure where
users get essence of mental feeling.
12
1312 Frichot, Hélène and Stephen Loo. "Introduction." In Deleuze and Architecture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2013.1.
1413Leach, Neil. Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory.New York: Routledge, 1997.80.

7ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CONCEPTS
Bibliography
Balez, Olivier, and Pierre Christin.Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City.
London: Nobrow Press, 2014.
Ballon, Hilary, and Kenneth T. Jackson.Robert Moses and the Modern City: The
Transformation of New York. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. 66.
Ballon, Hilary, and Kenneth T. Jackson.Robert Moses and the Modern City: The
Transformation of New York. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. 66.
BrankoMitrovic, Philosophy for Architects .New York:Princeton Architectural Press, 2011.
162.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. "Chapter 3, What Is Minor Literature?" In Kafka:
Toward a Minor Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. 16.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. "Introduction: Rhizome." Translated by Brian
Massumi.In A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Continuum, 2004.
24-28.
Fishman, Robert. "Revolt of the Urbs." In Robert Moses and the Modern City: The
Transformation of New York, by Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson. New York: W.W.
Norton &, 2007. 122-24.
Fishman, Robert. 'Beyond Suburbia: The Rise of the Technoburb' in The City Reader. Edited
by Richard T. LeGates and Frederick Stout.5th ed. Abringdon: Routledge/Taylor and Francis,
2011, 76-83.

8ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CONCEPTS
Frichot, Hélène and Stephen Loo. "Introduction." In Deleuze and Architecture. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2013.1.
Heidegger, Martin. "Building, Dwelling, Thinking." In Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in
Cultural Theory, by Neil Leach.New York: Routledge, 1997.100.
Holl, Steven, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Pérez Gómez."An Architecture of the Seven
Senses." In Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture.San Francisco, CA:
William Stout Publishers, 2006.30. 45
Husserl, Edmund. "Phenomenology." Translated by Richard E. Palmer. “3. The Self-
contained Field of the Purely Psychical.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1927.
Jacobs, Jane. "Introduction." In The Death and Life of Great American Cities.New York:
Random House, 1961.3.7 Jacobs, Jane. "The Use of Sidewalks: safety." In The Death and
Life of Great American Cities, New York: Random House, 1961. 29.
Leach, Neil. Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory.New York: Routledge,
1997.80.
Mitrovic, Branko. "'Foucault, Deleuze and Guttari'" In Philosophy for Architects;
Architecture Briefs. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011.167
Mitrovic, Branko. Philosophy for Architects. New York: Princeton Architectural Press,
2011.129.
Mitrovic, Branko. Philosophy for Architects. New York: Princeton Architectural Press,
2011.118.

9ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CONCEPTS
Norberg-Schulz, Christian. "The Phenomenon of Place." In Theorizing a New Agenda for
Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, by Kate Nesbitt. New York:
Princenton Architectural Press, 1996.422.
Pallasmaa, Julian. "The Geometry of Feeling." In Theorizing a New Agenda for
Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, by Kate Nesbitt. New
York: Princenton Architectural Press, 1996.448. 44