This article was downloaded by: [197.27.40.47] On: 01 May 2012, At: 21:40 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Architectural Theory Review Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ratr20 Christian Norberg-Schulz's Phenomenological Project In Architecture Elie Haddad Available online: 30 Mar 2010 To cite this article: Elie Haddad (2010): Christian Norberg-Schulz's Phenomenological Project In Architecture, Architectural Theory Review, 15:1, 88-101 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13264821003629279 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
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This article was downloaded by: [197.27.40.47]On: 01 May 2012, At: 21:40Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office:Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Architectural Theory ReviewPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscriptioninformation:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ratr20
Christian Norberg-Schulz's PhenomenologicalProject In ArchitectureElie Haddad
Available online: 30 Mar 2010
To cite this article: Elie Haddad (2010): Christian Norberg-Schulz's Phenomenological Project In Architecture,Architectural Theory Review, 15:1, 88-101
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13264821003629279
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantialor systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, ordistribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that thecontents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, anddrug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liablefor any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoevercaused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
2. Martin Heidegger, Being andTime, Harper, 2008; ‘‘TheOrigin of the Work of Art’’and ‘‘Building DwellingThinking’’ are included inthe collection of essays pub-lished as Poetry, Language,
Thought, Harper, 2001;‘‘The Question ConcerningTechnology’’ in The Question
Concerning Technology, and
Other Essays, Harper: 1982.
3. Moran, Introduction to Phe-
nomenology, p. 209.
4. Structuralism largely devel-oped out of linguistic stu-dies, the branch ofknowledge concerned withthe study of language itself.Initially, the main source ofinfluence was the Swisslinguist Ferdinand de Saus-sure, who left no work ofhis own, other than thecollected notes publishedby his students after hisdeath, as the General Course
on Linguistics, a work thatwas first translated to Eng-lish in 1959. Saussure in-itiated a major change inthe study of language, in-sisting on a synchronic ap-proach rather than theusual diachronic approachby looking at the structureof the language and its rulesof operation. He also pos-ited that language is a ‘con-
structed’ system, and notnaturally inherited or meta-physically inspired, thusopening the way for adeeper probe into the veryfoundations of this system,which directly affects theway we construct our real-ity and the world. Althoughin his collection of notes,the term ‘structure’ wasnever used by Saussure,but rather ‘system’, laterreaders of Saussure cameup with this terminologywhich became a standardbearer for other studies,and first among those, thework of Claude Levi-Straussin anthropology. For moreon this see Francois Dosse,Histoire du Structuralisme,Vol. 1, Paris: La Decouverte,1991; and John Sturrock,Structuralism, London: Black-well, 2003.
5. Christian Norberg-Schulz,Intentions in Architecture,Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,1965, pp. 21–22.
6. Norberg-Schulz, Intentions
in Architecture, pp. 101–102.
7. Peter Collins wrote a sharpcritique of this early workof Norberg-Schulz, warningagainst the dangers ofassimilating architecturewithin overwhelming ‘‘the-ories’’ of philosophical orlinguistic nature. See hisbook review of Intentions
in Architecture in the Journal
of Architectural Education,21, 3, 1967: 8–10.
8. Christian Norberg-Schulz,Existence, Space and Archi-
tecture, NY: Praeger, 1971,p. 7.
9. Otto F. Bollnow, author ofMensch und Raum, 1963 aswell as a number of workson German existential phi-losophy and hermeneutics,among others.
10. Norberg-Schulz, Existence,
Space and Architecture, p. 12.
11. Norberg-Schulz, Existence,
Space and Architecture, p. 21.
12. Norberg-Schulz, Existence,
Space and Architecture, p. 27.
13. Norberg-Schulz, Existence,
Space and Architecture, p. 31.
14. Norberg-Schulz, Existence,
Space and Architecture, p. 96.
15. Norberg-Schulz, Existence,
Space and Architecture,p. 114.
16. Christian Norberg-Schulz,Genius Loci: Towards a Phe-
nomenology of Architecture,New York: Rizzoli, 1980.The book was first pub-lished in Italian as Genius
Loci-paesaggio, ambiente, ar-
chitettura by Electa in 1979.It is interesting to note herethat the Italian subtitle dif-fers from the one chosen
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for the English edition anddoes not include the refer-ence to Phenomenology.
17. Martin Heidegger, Poetry,
Language, Thought, NewYork: Harper & Row, 1971.
18. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,p. 17.
19. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,p. 18.
20. For a critique of Norberg-Schulz’s visual approach,see Jorge Otero-Pailos,‘‘Photo[historio]graphy: Chri-stian Norberg-Schulz’sDemotion of Textual His-tory’’, Journal of Society of
Architectural Historians, 66,2, 2007: 220–241. Otero-Pailos argues that theauthor created a newtype of history book, onewhich relies on images as an‘‘alternate narrative’’ whichwas paradoxically anti-historical, in that it avoidedcritical reflection by conceal-ing its own historical con-struction.
21. In this text, Heidegger re-ferred to the Greek templeas a major example of thesignificance and role of awork of art. Norberg-Schulz dedicated one ofhis essays to discuss thistext by Heidegger, pub-lished as Christian Norber-Schulz, ‘‘Heidegger’s Think-ing on Architecture’’, Per-
specta, 20, 1983: 61–80.
22. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,p. 37.
23. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,p. 40.
24. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,p. 46.
25. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,p. 47.
26. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,pp. 68–69.
27. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,pp. 71–73.
28. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,pp. 191–192.
29. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,pp. 194–195.
30. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,pp. 195–198.
31. Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci,pp. 198–200.
32. This work did not concludethe series on this topic, asthe author published an-other work, titled Architec-
ture: Presence, Language and
Place, which reiterated thesame themes discussed inthe previous books.
33. Christian Norberg-Schulz,The Concept of Dwelling: On
the Way to Figurative Archi-
tecture, New York: Rizzoli,1985. Again, the originalpublication came out firstin Italian, under Electa, oneyear prior.
34. In another essay titled ‘‘Onthe Way to Figurative Archi-tecture’’, Norberg-Schulzsheds further light on hisinterpretation of the ‘‘figura-tive’’, using this concept tosupport recent post-moder-nist projects by Venturi,Graves and Botta, amongothers. See ChristianNorberg-Schulz, ‘‘On theWay to Figurative Architec-ture’’, in Norberg-Schulz,Architecture: Meaning and
Place, New York: Electa/Rizzoli, 1988, pp. 233–245.
35. Norberg-Schulz, Concept ofDwelling, pp. 9–12.
36. Norberg-Schulz, Concept ofDwelling, p. 29.
37. Norberg-Schulz, Concept ofDwelling, p. 30.
38. Norberg-Schulz, Concept ofDwelling, p. 89.
39. Norberg-Schulz, Concept ofDwelling, p. 110. Two draw-ings were used to illustratethe ‘‘figural quality’’: the firsta drawing by Louis Kahn,the second by MichaelGraves, titled ‘‘On theWay to Figurative Architec-ture’’, pp. 132, 134.
40. Norberg-Schulz, Concept ofDwelling, p. 135.
41. See for instance: HarrisForusz, ‘‘Review of GeniusLoci’’, Journal of ArchitecturalEducation, 34, 3, 1981: 32;one of the critical reviewsof Norberg-Schulz is byLinda Krause, ‘‘Review ofArchitecture: Meaning andPlace’’, The Journal of the
Society of Architectural Histor-
ians, 50, 2, 1991: 197–199.Also, a critical yet cursorydiscussion of Norberg-Schulz’s concept of dwellingcan be found in DavidLeatherbarrow, Roots of
42. Massimo Cacciari, ‘‘Eupali-nos or Architecture’’,Oppositions, 21, 1980: 106–116. This article was writ-ten as a review of Tafuri &Dal Co’s Architettura con-
temporanea, for the journalOppositions. Architettura con-
temporanea appeared in1976, and was translated
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as Modern Architecture in1979. Cacciari’s essay inOppositions coincided withNorberg-Schulz’s originalpublication of Genius Loci inItalian.
43. Cacciari, ‘‘Eupalinos or Ar-chitecture’’, p. 107.
44. Hilde Heynen, Architecture
and Modernity, Cambridge,MA: MIT Press, 1999.
45. Christian Norberg-Schulz,Architecture: Presence,
Language, Place, Milan: Skira,2000.
46. This appears to be the casefor instance of Steven Hollwho, despite the stimulatingexperiences that his archi-tecture creates, can not claimto resolve the contradictionsborn out of operating withina certain economic modethat determines a priori theconditions for experiencingand using these buildings.This reduction of phenom-enology to a ‘‘sensory’’ or‘‘embodied’’ experience ofspace is advocated for in-stance by Fred Rush in hisbook On Architecture, NewYork: Routledge, 2009.
47. Botond Bognar articulateda similar position in hisessay ‘‘Toward an Architec-ture of Critical Inquiry’’,Journal of Architectural Edu-
cation, 43, 1, 1989: 13–34in which he came to theconclusion that the recentphenomenological appro-aches in architecture arelegitimate in insisting on ameaningful dimension, yetthey lack the strategies forcritically evaluating thegiven social reality whichdetermines the realms ofintentionality and intersub-jectivity (p. 22).
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