Week 7

After our lecture on Wednesday and even after the readings I still see phenomenology as a difficult concept for me to understand. However, one section that stood out to me that helped me get a clearer understanding of it was from “Kahn, Heidegger, and the Language of Architecture”, Nuremberg-Schulz in describing how “when a space knows what it wants to be, it becomes a room, that is, a place which has a particular character”, he continues to quote Kahn “I can’t define a space really as a space unless I have natural light. And that because the moods which are created by the time of the day and seasons of the year are constantly helping you in evoking that which a space can be…” (Norberg-Schulz 32). This stuck out to me because as I was reading it a clear personal example came to mind. Over the summer, the sun line up perfectly with the third-floor staircase in my house so that at the golden hour it was filled with a bright orange light that affected my mood as I went up to my room in the evening. Whereas now the two do not align, so it can end up being very dark and not as uplifting. It is a very clear example of how places acquire different meanings depending on when you experience them, their meaning is variable to the situation that they are in. 

I think it is interesting the similarities and contrasts between Rossi and architecture being autonomous and putting importance on the interconnectedness of things while Norberg-Shulz also pushes for an understanding of all things being connected but that when looking at a city it “is powerfully influenced by a natural environment having its own unique character” (Nornberg-Shulz 61). I think it is interesting that the natural world is being even more reincorporated back into the understanding of architecture.

Reference

Norberg-Shulz, Christian. Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture, n.d.