Historical consciousness in the interpretation of the architectural place

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to make a clearer and broader interpretation of architectural works and places in the disciplinary field of architecture. Departing from the assumption that architectural works cannot always be interpreted by means of a formal description and analysis (sometimes through the breakdown of the buildings generating these works), we propose to explore other forms of interpreting and understanding them by using a series of reflections linked to the concepts of space, time and to the awareness of the interpreters' role. Contemporary hermeneutical philosophy is the main focus underlying this research, more specifically that of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, and the fact that the interpretation or realization of an architectural place or work is the result of human intervention. For Gadamer, the finite man, the historical man always sees and understands from his own standpoint located in a particular time and space, and is unable to place himself apart from the relativity of history in the search for "objectively valid knowledge" (Gadamer, 2004, p. 30). This paper therefore calls on the finite and relational dimension of man and his historical roots in the interpretation of the architectural place; the field of interpretation of interpretation is focused on a paradigm that is different from the one in common practice. Thus the interpreters' dimensions, which are normally excluded from analysis, are introduced as data when interpreting the places.