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Architectural Theory and Practice, and the Question of Phenomenology

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Architectural Theory and Practice, and the Question of Phenomenology Architectural Theory and Practice, and the Question of Phenomenology (The Contribution of Tadao Ando to the Phenomenological Discourse) Von der Fakultät Architektur, Bauingenieurwesen und Stadtplanung der Brandenburgischen Technischen Universität Cottbus zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktor-Ingenieurs genehmigte Dissertation vorgelegt von Mohammadreza Shirazi aus Tabriz, Iran Gutachter: : Prof. Dr. Eduard Führ Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Karsten Harries Gutachter: Gastprofessor. Dr. Riklef Rambow Tag der Verteidigung: 02. Juni 2009 Acknowledgment My first words of gratitude go to my supervisor Prof. Führ for giving me direction and support. He fully supported me during my research, and created a welcoming and inspiring atmosphere in which I had the pleasure of writing this dissertation. I am indepted to his teachings and instructions in more ways than I can state here. I am particularly grateful to Prof. Karsten Harries. His texts taught me how to think on architecture deeply, how to challenge whatever is ‘taken for granted’ and ‘remain on the way, in search of home’. I am also grateful to other colleagues in L.S. Theorie der Architektur. I want to express my thanks to Dr. Riklef Rambow who considered my ideas and texts deeply and helped me with his advice at different stages. I am thankful for the comments and kind helps I received from Dr. Katharina Fleischmann. I also want to thank Prof. Hahn from TU Dresden and other PhD students who attended in Doktorandentag meetings and criticized my presentations. I would like to express my appreciation to the staff of Langen Foundation Museum for their kind helps during my visit of that complex, and to Mr. Frey, a member of German design team, who pointed to important matters concerning design and construction of the Museum. My deepest thanks go to my wife Somayeh Falahat who is the permanent companion of mine in being ‘on the way.’ Abstract (English) Although phenomenology is primary a philosophical subject discussed by great philosophers such as Lambert, Herder, Kant, Fichte and Hegel, formulated by Husserl as a new way of doing philosophy, and later elaborated by features like Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Bachelard, and Gadamer in different ways, it has been used extensively by architectural theoreticians and architects in their investigations and designs. On the one hand, architectural theoreticians have taken phenomenological way of comprehending the world and environment as the departure point for establishing a unique understanding of architecture, city, and man-made environment, and propose a more proper method of analyzing. On the other hand, architects have tried to capture the essence of the things through a phenomenological contemplation, and incorporate their feelings into the architectural works. This dissertation intends to investigate the status of ‘phenomenology’ in the field of architectural theory and practice, study its advantages and disadvantages regarding analyzing and interpreting architectural buildings, propose a more comprehensive method of phenomenological interpretation, and examine it in the case of Langen Foundation Museum designed by Tadao Ando. This study is divided into three main parts of ‘question’, ‘inquiry’, and ‘towards an articulate phenomenological interpretation of architecture’. The first part deals with the question of phenomenology in both philosophy and architecture, and concentrates on the works of the philosophers Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and studies the architectural thoughts of Christian Norberg-Schulz, Juhani Pallasmaa, Kenneth Frampton, and Steven Holl, to introduce the main disadvantages of their phenomenological approach to architecture. The second part deals with the case study of Tadao Ando, and shows that the question of Ando in architecture is a two-fold one; the question of a relationship between theory and practice from one hand, and the question of interpretation and phenomenology on the other. To investigate this matter Ando’s architectural reflections will be introduced in the frame of main-narrative and sub-narratives. In the third part it will be shown that Ando’s reflections on architecture possess deep phenomenological concerns. Then, a new way of phenomenological interpretation– so called phenomenal phenomenology – will be drawn and applied in the case of the Langen Foundation Museum. Abstract (German) Die Phänomenologie ist primär Gegenstand philosophischer Auseinandersetzungen bedeutender Denker wie Lambert, Herder, Kant, Fichte und Hegel. Von Husserl wurde sie als neue Praktik einer anwendungsorientierten Philosophie beschrieben und später von zentralen Philosophen wie Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Bachelard, und Gadamer weiter ausgearbeitet. Aber auch Architekturtheoretiker und Architekten bedienen sich weitreichend der Phänomenologie in Forschung und Entwurf. Einerseits haben Architekturtheoretiker ein phänomenologisches Verständnis der Welt und Umwelt als Ausgangspunkt einer ganzheitliches Betrachtung von Architektur, Stadt, und künstlicher Umwelt etabliert und somit eine sachgemäßer Analysemethode durchgesetzt. Anderseits versuchten Architekten, den tatsächlichen Charakter des Untersuchten durch eine phänomenologische Herangehensweise zu erfassen, und ihre Eindrücke in architektonischen Entwürfen umzusetzen. Diese Dissertation beabsichtigt, die Bedeutung der Phänomenologie innerhalb der Theorie und Praxis von Architektur zu untersuchen, seine Vorteile und Nachteile in Bezug auf die Analyse und Interpretation des Gebäudes zu verstehen, eine deutliche und umfassende Methode der phänomenologischen Interpretation zu entwickeln, und dieses Methode im Falle des Langen Foundation Museum von Tadao Ando zu überprüfen. Die Arbeit ist in drei Hauptteile untergliedert: „Fragestellung―, „Untersuchung―, und „Plädoyer für eine phänomenologische Interpretation der Architektur―. Der erste Teil beschäftigt sich mit der Phänomenologie in Philosophie und Architektur und konzentriert sich auf die Werke der Philosophen Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger und Maurice Merleau- Ponty. Es werden architektonische Überlegungen von Christian Norberg-Schulz, Juhani Pallasmaa, Kenneth Frampton, und Steven Holl untersucht und zentrale Vorteile und Nachteile ihres phänomenologischen Architekturverständnisses dargestellt. Der zweite Teil untersucht die Fallstudie von Tadao Ando. Es wird gezeigt, dass Ando’s Architekturansatz eine zweifache Fragestellung aufwirft: die Frage des Verhältnisses von Theorie und Praxis einerseits; und die Frage der Interpretation und Phänomenologie andererseits. Zur Ermittlung dieser Fragen werden Ando’s architektonische Überlegungen durch zentrale und untergeordnete Aussagen analysiert. Im letzten Teil wird die phänomenologische Kritik an Ando’s Architekturansatzes dargestellt.. Abschließend wird eine neue phänomenologische Interpretationsmethode— die sogenannte phänomenologische Phänomenologie—präsentiert und auf die Fallstudie des Museum Langen Foundation angewendet. Architectural Theory and Practice, and the Question of Phenomenology (The Contribution of Tadao Ando to the Phenomenological Discourse) Introduction: The problem of phenomenology 1 The structure of inquiry 6 I. The Question 1. The question of phenomenology in philosophy 11 1-1 Introduction 11 1-2 The origin of the term ‘phenomenology’ 12 1-3 Phenomenology in Husserl 13 1-3-1 To the things themselves 13 1-3-2 Phenomenology as a presuppositionless science 14 1-3-3 Suspension (reduction) 14 1-3-4 Physical body and living body 15 1-3-5 Life-world 16 1-3-6 Horizon and background 17 1-4 Phenomenology in Martin Heidegger 18 1-4-1 Phenomenology as letting to be seen 18 1-4-2 The question of Being 20 1-4-3 Da-sein and Being-in-the-world 21 1-4-4 Being-in and dwelling 21 1-4-5 Against traditional opinions of space 22 1-4-6 Three types of space 23 1-4-7 Spatiality of Da-sein 26 1-4-8 The origin of the work of art 26 1-4-9 Thingly character of the work of art 27 1-4-10 Work of art and truth 27 1-4-11 Greek temple, world and setting-into-work of truth 29 1-4-12 Truth, opening up a world and setting forth of earth 31 1-4-13 Building and dwelling 34 1-4-14 The fourfold, thing and dwelling 35 1-4-15 Bridge as a gathering 35 1-4-16 The thing as fourfold 36 1-4-17 Place and space 38 1-4-18 Building and fourfold 39 1-4-19 Poetically man dwells 39 1-4-20 Language and fourfold 40 1-4-21 Bringing-into-the-work of places 41 1-5 Phenomenology in Merleau-Ponty 44 1-5-1 Phenomenology of origins 44 1-5-2 Against the science 45 1-5-3 Against Cartesianism 46 1-5-4 World and ‘body image’ 47 1-5-5 Bodily experience, body and movement 47 1-5-6 Body and space 48 1-5-7 Perspectival perception 49 1-5-8 Painting as primordial connection of the body and world 49 1-5-9 Perception and background 49 2. The question of phenomenology in architecture 52 2-1 Introduction 52 2-2 Phenomenology in Norberg-Schulz 53 2-2-1 The necessity of phenomenology 53 2-2-2 ‘Genius loci’, spirit of place 60 2-2-3 Architecture, setting-into-work of place 63 2-2-4 Place today, the loss of place 65 2-2-5 Existential space 67 2-2-6 Language and architecture, from archetype to figure 69 2-2-7 The language of architecture 71 2-2-8 Four modes of dwelling 72 2-2-9 Two aspects of dwelling, identification and orientation 73 2-2-10 Monumentality and regionalism 74 2-2-11 Winter evening, phenomenal concerns 76 2-2-12 ‘Genius Loci’, phenomenology from without, a critical review 80 2-3 Phenomenology in Juhani Pallasmaa 94 2-3-1 Phenomenology as naïve seeing 94 2-3-2 Supremacy of vision
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