Significations et perceptions en architecture dans l’œuvre de Christian Norberg-Schulz

Architecture, being strictly a means of construction, is not independent of mental decisions, images, and esthetic values coming from various fields of references.  It is in fact, as a result of all that, subject to various interpretations.  We commonly call the universe where reside these hypothetical constructions: Architectural significance.  Talking about architectural significance does not only belong to a specific framework of reference materials but also to its relationship with the attitude of man vis-à-vis “perception”.  Studying architectural significance could not therefore ignore the question of “perception” and our research will demonstrate their interaction, and the theoretical and practical means, which allow their realization.  In asking the question about the origin of “perception”, which is not a simple act, nor a contemplative one, but rather a moment of an active interaction with the architectural form or the form of art in general, we find in the writings of the historian, Christian Norberg-Schluz two types if works; hence two types of responses that we underline the antinomian character towards each others.  It is that Norberg-Schluz leads a reflection in the first book he wrote; Intentions in Architecture (1962), known in French as Système logique de l’architecture (1974), here after referred to as SLA, that treats significance as if a continuum exists between architectural expression and “modes de vie” in society, benefiting as a result a cultural approach to the question.  His SLA consists of a theoretical system, which seems to be influenced at many fronts, by works of the epistemology of Jean Piaget and the contributions of semiotics to the development of the studies on architectural significance.  The second type of response that formulates Norberg-Schulz regarding the origin of the act of perception in which he aligns himself with the reflections of the Philosopher Martin Heidegger, takes us to a new ground of study which lays the ground for the social and cultural foundations of architectural language and which relates the study of significance to the study of the human being.  The step is then ceded to an ontological research; Norberg Schulz would lead with consistence starting with his book Existence, Space, and Architecture (1971) the question about the historical and universal foundations of architectural expression.  The construction of this thesis, which we separate into two parts, corresponds to two theoretical movements characterizing the writings of Norberg-Schulz.  The first part of this thesis will therefore; be devoted to studying the SLA of Norberg Schulz.  Our objective consists of unveiling the ambiguities surrounding the framework of his work and the heritage he left to the architectural theory.  Our study will demonstrate the controversial aspect of his SLA related to influences that practice the “pragmatic” on the study of significance. In this first part, it is suggested that we present the theoretical models contained in the SLA and to put them in association with the different dimensions, which are being proposed for the study of architectural language, and especially the social dimension, as a result of formalizing the language of art, initiated by the semiotics and psychology on the meaning of significance. This involves studying the functionality of architecture and the research instruments of the typology of the architectural form and its schematization. Our critical approach of the SLA is based on evaluation that adopts the standpoint of the historical research of Manfredo Tafuri.  The second part of our thesis focuses on the foundations of Norberg-Schulz’ interest in sharing with Heidegger the question of the human being, which contributes to the foundations of an existentialist investigation on “significance” and “architectural perception”.  Throwing light on these foundations requires demonstrating the roots of the question on the human being in the essence of the hermeneutic practice of Heidegger, and also that of H. G. Gadamer, and it requires revealing the importance of “image” as a foundation for the question of the “human being”.  Research on trans-cultural esthetic values allows reducing the study of significance to the only dimension that is of the human being.  It’s by taking this direction that Norberg-Schulz along with Heidegger puts the foundations of his approach; the “dwell” and the “build” as means or mediums of manifestations of the question of the human being.  Our study reveals in the meantime, the interaction between the question of the “human being” and the critique of the technique in its present form being based on reproducibility. Between the writings of Norberg-Schulz and the specific analysis of Heidegger of the problem of art, there is a context of interruption with the language of the theory that matters for us to clarify and bring closer to the requirements of the hermeneutic, an approach which we also have adopted. Our method is essentially qualitative. It is inspired by the methods of interpretation and works of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida and also other works annexed to these types of analysis.  In the meantime, our research remains attentive to questions of epistemological order concerning the relation between architectural discipline and sciences that study the architectural language.  Our thesis suggests not only a deep understanding of Norberg-Schulz’s reflections but also a demonstration of the incompatibility of the phenomenology of Heidegger vis-à-vis the sciences of language, notably semiotics.

Keyphrases: Significance, perception, perception, theory, système, system, signs, phenomenology, hermeneutic, poetry, image, image, being