Department:

History & Theory of Architecture and Heritage Conservation

Course Leader:

Ștefan Vianu

Learning outcomes:

This course handles fundamental notions at the crossroads between philosophy and (the theory of) architecture. By completing this course the students will be able to understand architecture in the context of the European culture, namely to talk and write better about architecture using notions which they will comprehend clearer.

Content:

Introduction. Phenomenology and imaginary living. The cosmic condition of man. What is the myth? - Magical thinking and mythical thinking. Architecture and agriculture: the "Neolithic revolution". Primitive house (archetypal). - The idea of the Kosmos in Greek philosophy. - Modern man and his world. Geometric space. Understanding space in modern architecture. - The space of the world of everyday life. The idea of dwelling: identifying man with his space. - The space of the living body (Merleau-Ponty, Pallasmaa) - The idea of ambiance (Baudrillard) - The "aura" of a thing, of a place. Aura and Atmosphere. - The new phenomenology and space. Things. Light and shadows. The space of sounds and the space of silence.

Teaching Method:

Lectures in the classroom

Assessment:

Written essay

Bibliography:

Baudrillard, The System of Objects, London and New York, 1996
Benjamin, "The work of art in the era of its mechanical reproducibility": Illuminations, IDEA, 2002
Bernea, Space, time and causality among the Romanian people, Humanitas, 1997
Blaga, Trilogy of Values, Humanitas, 2014, 150
Böhme, Atmospheric Architectures: The Aesthetics of Felt Spaces, London, 2017 Bollnow, Human Space, London, 2011 Descartes, Principles of Philosophy, Iri Publishing House, Bucharest, 2000
Descartes, Discourse on Method
Eliade, History of Religious Beliefs and Ideas, EU, Bucharest, 2000, pp. 36-43
Gusdorf, Myth and Metaphysics, Amarcord, 1996
Heidegger, Being and Time, Humanitas, 2003 C. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Humanitas, 2008
T. Lipps, Aesthetics. The psychology of beauty and art. II. Aesthetic Contemplation and the Fine Arts, Meridians, 1987
Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, Aion, 1999
Pallasmaa, The touch that touches: architecture and the senses, Bucharest, 2015
Norberg-Schulz, L’Art du lieu, Le Moniteur, Paris, 1997
Plato, Timaios
Schmitz, Brief introduction to the new phenomenology, Ratio et Revelatio, 2018 Schmitz, Atmosphären, Karl Alber Freiburg / München, 2016
Tanizaki, Praise of the Shadow, ART Publishing House, 2019
Zumthor, Atmosfere, Arhitext Foundation Publishing House, 2019