After successful completion of the course, students are able to work with texts, independently develop conceptual ideas and take a stand on an abstract topic in the form of structured discussions, compile a constellation of quotations from the given literature and formulate a commentary that links the quotations together.

Is it disappointing for philosophy (…) not to be able to secure under one's feet the same, solid foundations (since the earth on which it builds is real earth, and therefore terrae motus) of mathematical reason? Is it a painful renunciation to admit that its mission is limited to 'providing the materials sufficient for a dwelling (Wohnhaus) spacious enough for our occupations on the plane of experience'? On the contrary, the definition of these limits is an expression of its rigour. It essentially has to do with living. Dwelling presupposes a defined horizon. One does not inhabit the á-peiron. But the limits of dwelling are not rigid boundaries. They are the boundary that necessarily looks beyond itself at the very moment it is marked. Its very design makes a sign to 'what' that exceeds its content. The place of the home is also 'what' transgresses its boundary. The place of the house is also always about the Un-heim; the house looks ‘outside'.

Massimo Cacciari, Labirinto Filosofico

Perhaps architecture has always been aware that reality is not deterministic, that things do not work according to a principle of cause and effect. If we simply think about the positioning of a window, a good architect would spend an extraordinary amount of time disposing of it. That's because architecture is tuned to the cyclical order of the seasons, yet it's also tuned to the probabilistic nature of meteorological conditions. An idea of universal architecture, then, does not lead to universal works - because works are never universal, for they are situated. It is an idea that dances with the rhythmic cyclicity of nature as well as with its non-determinism: each project is the articulation of an order that welcomes unpredictability in its full spectrum. In this balance lies the beauty of architecture as 'mathemata'. Architecture is a discipline with a discreet autonomy in its rationality and technique, and with a kind of specific yet general 'commentary' on the many - all? - spheres of human life. Whether private, public or sacred, it offers people places to live, to meet, to talk and to love. Meanwhile, perpendicular to such an offering of places, architecture also speculates metaphysically and mathematically on the causes of things (Scamozzi 1615): it informs itself and its formations. In this way of thinking, architecture is ultimately a scientific habit that inhabits the mind of the architect. A habit that bridges abstract speculation and concrete experience.

In the course we will consider architecture from physical and poetic (natural-philosophical) categories, according to a non-linguistic idea of 'traduction' (Serres 1981). If architecture is understood as communication, it can be articulated in the light of its generic and impersonal nature; a discipline that does not manifest itself as the expression of an individual will, but rather as the codification of a work in the service of the public: a work that unfolds doubly through public metaphors (Zafiris 2021). When architecture is understood as a matter of natural communication, the void becomes its medium and its spectacle, and the architect becomes the demiurge who codifies the particularity of buildings, translating architectural ideas into articulations of void, light and matter.

The course will develop through a series of lectures. The lectures will be held in English.

Thursday, 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Seminar room

ATTP, Wiedner Hauptstraße 7/2, 1st Floor

Start: October 12, 2023

  1) 12.10.2023: Kickoff and presentation of the course
  2) 19.10.2023: The Spectacle of Architecture: Void, Matter, Light
  3) 02.11.2023: Structure
  4) 09.11.2023: System
  5) 16.11.2023: Scale
  6) 23.11.2023: Form
  7) 30.11.2023: Type
  8) 07.12.2023: Space
  9) 14.12.2023: Surface
10) 21.12.2023: Esprit
11) 18.01.2024: Silence
12) 25.01.2024: Conclusion

It consists in compiling a constellation of quotes taken from the given literature and to articulate a commentary that binds the quotes together by reflecting upon the abstract categories presented in class. The exam has two main appointments, one in the middle of the semester -in which each student will present a ‘state of the art’ of the ongoing collection of quotes and the relative commentary; and one at the end of the semester with a final hand in scheduled for the end of February.