In order to be an architect, you must consider the realities of all other disciplines. Phenomenology is a way to sum these disciplines up into one direct experience and one perception. This is very difficult and oftentimes impossible if reality is unimaginable. But what does unimaginable mean? Is reality unimaginable because we cannot agree on virtually anything as a human species? Or is it unimaginable because we as humans are not capable of seeing the almighty truth? Vesely and Plato would agree that it is a combination of both.
Vesely states in, “The Relevance of Phenomenology,” that, “If one looks at what is commonly called reality, one discovers that it it’s incredibly sophisticated and complex mixture of ideas and half-finished thoughts.” (Vesely 59) Vesely is trying to point out that when we try to experience reality we end up unraveling a mess of ideas that distract us from the truth. As architects we are asked to cut through this while remaining aware that we may not fully understand the truth of the object we are creating or its environment. We can only develop a hypothesis for its representation and show this through our design aspects. The best architects are the ones that are closest to the truth.
Plato brings this up in “Allegory of the Cave,” by saying reality is something we cannot see as mortal beings. We must be released from our mortal bodies in order to know the truth. Yet, as technology advances we must be getting closer to the truth. Or are we just gravitating further towards what we believe the truth to be? Plato’s allegory fails to address one thing: what if there is no greater understanding of the world? There may be no higher level of the cave that takes us to the real world so to speak. My answer to that is that there must be. After all, humans are aware that we may not be experiencing reality. As opposed to the slaves in the cave, that were so one dimensional they had no imagination as to their overall purpose until one of them was shown the light. Our only downfall as humans is that we cannot agree on what that reality is. This applies to architecture because we have to put all the subjectivity aside and focus on what is and what can be.
Phenomenology is very important for architects to consider, but we cannot become so obsessed with finding truth that we get lost in fiction. We must keep an open mind to all disciplines and all knowledge while using objective thinking to reveal reality.
Vesely, Dalibor. On the Relevance of Phenomenology. Houston, Texas: University of Houston, 1984
Plato, Republic (Book VII, ‘The allegory of the cave’)
Interesting connection you’re making between Vesely and Plato… given that we covered Plato in relation to Typology, it would be interesting to hear how you think phenomenology ties into typology. Moreover, I’m interested to hear if you think phenomenology could be applied ‘operatively’ to our discipline, or if its most specific contribution is simply a ‘state of mind,’ a kind of attitude rather than a methodology, especially as Norberg-Schulz seems to be outlining a practical method embedded within a philosophical view.