The Space of Appearance and the Public Space: A Hesitant Conversation
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Date
2023-11-03
Publication Type
Other Conference Item
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yes
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Abstract
The term ‘space of appearance’ enjoys some acclaim within the fields of architecture and urban design. The term originates from the writings of philosopher Hannah Arendt, especially from her 1958 book The Human Condition, when she addresses how people appear to one another through action and speech. The term was introduced into the design disciplines after about two decades by British-American architectural historian Kenneth Frampton and Canadian architect and theorist George Baird. Frampton refers to the term in some his key texts, as for instance in his well-known essay ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism’, while Baird has used the term title of his reassessment of the history of twentieth-century architecture. There is evidently a ‘hint of commonality’ between Arendt’s term and the issue these architectural scholars address. This paper is meant to examine this ‘hint of commonality’. It will first examine the term within the broader context of Arendt’s work. There are a few prompts in Arendt’s work to justify an architectural reading of the term. While bringing it from a strictly political philosophical context into a context of the architecture of public space, Arendt’s term offers a few perspectives upon this notion of public space. In the second part of the paper, I will turn to the writings of Frampton and Baird. Though they have their own interpretation of Arendt’s term, which is informed by their experience of the fields of architecture and urban design, as well as their ambitions to acclaim room for public spaces. Therefore, I will not just show what their blind spots are, regarding this term, but also how their interpretation, informed by the fields of architecture, contributes to an expanded notion of the space of appearance.
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published
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Book title
Symposium of Urban Design History and Theory
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Pages / Article No.
165 - 165
Publisher
SUDHT
Event
1st Symposium of the History and Theory of Urban Design (SUDHT)
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Subject
Space of Appearance; Public Space; Architecture; Philosophy; Hannah Arendt; Kenneth Frampton; George Baird
Organisational unit
09643 - Avermaete, Tom / Avermaete, Tom
02655 - Netzwerk Stadt u. Landschaft ARCH u BAUG / Network City and Landscape ARCH and BAUG
Notes
Conference lecture held on November 3, 2023.