25/09/2009Place and Dwelling [M. Heidegger] The Phenomenon of Place [Christian Norberg-Schulz]

• Christian Norberg Schulz The Phenomenon Of Place Pdf Download
• Christian Norberg Schulz The Phenomenon Of Place Pdf File

By Christian Norberg-Schulz Our everyday life-world consists of concrete “phenomena.” It consists of people, of animals, of flowers, trees and forests, of stone, earth, wood and water, of towns, streets and houses, doors, windows and furniture.

Heidegger’s “Place and Dwelling” is an etymological delineation of the existential purpose of architecture: to elicit dwelling. To dwell, Heidegger describes, is to be; it is to “preserve”, it is to “free something to the preserve of peace” vis a vis the “gathering of things.” A “thing”, like a bridge, connects space with space and invites the infinite “fourfold”—the ethereal–into human being-dwelling. This admission of the “fourfold” by the “locale” which is created by the “thing” ascribes being, identity, and manifestation.

Christian Norberg Schulz The Phenomenon Of Place Pdf Download

The chief focus of the book is on the symbolic and linguistic. The purpose is to develop an integrated theory of architectural description and architectural intention (and this includes the intention of the user as well as that of the designer), insofar as architecture is an art. Norberg-Schulz is a practicing architect; his buildings stand in several countries; and he elucidates the nature of. Christian Norberg-Schulz was, for many architecture students of the 1980s, an important reference in architectural phenomenology, especially because the combination of texts and images in his books provided readily accessible explanations for how a phenomenological approach to architecture could be translated into designs. The purpose of this brief essay is not to refute the ideas that make up the core of phenomenologist thought (though rest assured, that will come in time), but instead to challenge the simple assumption at the core of Norberg-Schulz’s essay: that the experience of place is the core determiner of human identity.

Christian Norberg-Schulz further develops this in “The Phenomenon of Place” by clarifying that “visualization, symbolization, and gathering are the general processes of settling and dwelling”. Heidegger’s bridge is a visual symbol of this act of gathering and articulates this unified whole through connection of spaces. Norberg-Schulz further asserts that architecture interprets space and uncovers “the meanings potentially present in the given environment”; an uncovering that thereby reveals its genius loci, its spirit. Connection with this spirit is integral to the development of human identity and identification to our environment which is a temporal understanding of our being-dwelling in the world. Heidegger asserts that we must “ever learn to dwell” that since the parameters that define meaning-thinking-being are not fixed in definition, dwelling is in a constant state of change.

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Design theories are often derived from larger cultural and philosophical movements where they drive their inspiration from. This was certainly the case with the use of phenomenology and its application in design as expressed in the writings of Christian Norberg-Schulz (1926-2000). He was a Norwegian architect, author, historian and an educator. He drew from the phenomenological works of Martin Heidegger which helped him develop a critique towards modern architecture and urban design and also expressed a strong urge for place-making design. His writings emphasized on the thought that each place has poetic quality and a spiritual sense of their own which should incorporated in the design as in important characteristic.

The most influential works of Christian Norberg-Schulz can be listed as- Intentions In Architecture(1963), Existence, Space And Architecture(1971), meaning in Western Architecture(1974) and Genius Loci(1980). All his works are a direct response to the perceived crisis in design profession. He bemoans the loss of the communicative quality of the modern design. He suggests that designers should built visible, differentiate and “concretize” the physical character and the essence of the place. Works of Norberg Schulz parallels the works authors like Charles Jencks, Kevin Lynch, Aldo Rossi And Robert Venturi who talked about similar theories like text, imagibility, legibility in design.

He witnessed the blight of architecture in his time, where modern architecture ignored the relationship between a man and his environment. The buildings were considered as machines and the spiritual quality of the spaces was being dismissed. This is time when he raised the question of why do human beings establish a certain sense of attachment with their surroundings in which they “dwell”? What is it to “exist” in this world ?

It was a whole new voice, a new beginning, where Norberg-Schulz, with his first book Intentions In Architecture, displayed almost a structuralist attitude, where he tried to lay down a system which explained that how people engaged with their environments. He established the fact that meaning and experience are two different attributes of a space which should be incorporated in the design and gave rise to the concept of “schema” of a place.

He tried to break down architecture to its absolute essentials. His major inspiration behind doing so was Human Psychology. Gestalt psychology was one the psychologies which was about analysing the response of a child towards his environment and then understand how does the environment regulate these responses. This lead him to write his second book Existence Space and Architecture, where he said that architecture was just not a physical construct. When people build, they settle with a greater idea of cosmos. Ideas like “Centre” and “Periphery” started being clear through his writings, which is where his inspiration from Heidegger’s thoughts started becoming concrete. Heidegger’s writings like Being and Time and especially Building, Dwelling, Thinking acted as keystones in shaping up Norberg-Schulz’s thoughts while writing this book. Through this book, he tried to analyse and answer questions like – what is the meaning of dwelling? what does it mean to dwell? what does it mean to “be” in this world? what is the kind of connections a human being establishes while he starts to settle in his environment?

Heidegger spoke about the dwelling being more about establishing a spiritual and fundamental connect with the environment rather than just a physical act of building, which is the poetic discussion from where Norberg-Schulz picked up his writings and took them further to integrate these thoughts with architecture. In his next book Meaning in Western Architecture, he speaks about schema and the gesture of people towards their environment. He discussed further that architecture can not be looked upon as pragmatic terms but also has deeper symbolic meaning. He carried forward the same idea in his next book called Genius Loci, where he further tried to study the intangible character of the spaces.

Genius Loci is a roman concept which speaks about the spirit of the place. He said that all spaces have their spirit which structures the relations human beings establish with their environment. He categorised the architecture and classified them into categories like romantic, classic and cosmic landscapes. According to Norberg-Schulz, it was the architect who recognised this spirit and had to interpret it in the design.

Christian Norberg Schulz The Phenomenon Of Place Pdf File

His writings, although being the path changer in the early post-modernist period, were criticised heavily. Some of them being that phenomenology was a concept as a whole and cannot be subdivided into entities. The idea of spirit of the place being different from the physical character, portrayed in his writings contrasted the concept of phenomenology. Also, the loci of a space already exists, architecture only gives it a form and concretizes, making it visible. Unlike other forms of art, the loci of a space is not a communicator, rather it is mediator through which the relations come in existence and start developing. One of the major critiques about his work was that he interpreted Heidegger’s idea of dwelling into a social utopia.

His architectural phenomenology writings reflected a key turning point in the early phases of postmodernism and a legitimating source for those architects who first dared to confront history as an intellectual problem and not merely as a stylistic question. Initially, the concept that experience could be a timeless architectural language provided a unifying intellectual basis for the stylistic pluralism that characterized postmodernism. his writings helped give theory—especially the theory of architectural history—a new importance over practice.