Phenomenology of architecture. Discourses of Christian Norberg- Schulz and Juhani Pallasmaa

Abstract

In architectural theory, phenomenology is understood as a movement that investigates architecture as a human experience. Within this movement, this article highlights two discourses: that of Christian Norberg-Schulz and Juhani Pallasmaa for presenting, respectively, a “phenomenology of the exterior” and a “phenomenology of the interior”– architectural domains that are interdependent. These architects-phenomenologists have argued about architecture-place and architecture-body in order to state out their critical viewpoint towards the modern and postmodern movement. The purpose of this article is to understand and confront these discourses by representing a sequentiality of thoughts that (in conclusion) “open the door” to a (new) contemporary phenomenology in architecture. The development of the theme involves the approach of the problems of architecture as an image and architecture of body presence, the latter essential for contemporary phenomenology. Methodologically, this logical follow-up is presented and followed by a contrast of the ideas addressed. It ends with the highlighting of the thoughts of Norberg-Schulz and Pallasmaa that developed the analysis of the notion of the body in the phenomenology of architecture. This expansion promotes and introduces contemporary phenomenology (atmospheric phenomenology as architectural quality) as an effective application in current practice for prominent architects such as Daniel Libeskind, Steven Holl, and Peter Zumthor.