The Architecture of Appearance

Abstract

In Hannah Arendt’s notion of public space appearance is key. Public space to her at once a space where people appear to one another, as well as a space where human beings appear in the world. This appearance ‘assures … the reality of the world.’ Arendt ascribes this assurance on the one hand to the ‘many’, seeing ‘a variety of aspects without changing [its] identity’, as well as to a bodily experience, wherein all senses are addressed at once. These two perspectives inform the architectural reading that I aim to develop in this paper. This reading will explore the spatial characteristics as well as the materiality of the ‘space of appearance’, and will help to not only deepen the understanding of Arendt’s notion, but also to reflect upon developments in contemporary urban public spaces.