Acceso usuarios
This paper aims at fulfilling a gap that is present in different scholarly debates, namely those found in Hegel-studies and in the theory of architecture. On the one hand, Hegel’s chapter about architecture was never an object of investigation in the previous Italian and German research on Hegel’s aesthetics. On the other hand, Hegel’s revealing approach is entirely ignored in the contemporary discussions on theories of architecture. Accordingly, this study has two purposes: first, to reconstruct Hegel’s understanding of architecture within the context ofhis speculative philosophy. Second, to highlight Hegel’s answers to questions that challenge contemporary theories of architecture. In the first part, I isolate Hegel’s ‘determination’ of architecture in the lectures on philosophy of art and place them into the wider context of Hegel’s philosophical system. In addition to his philosophy of art, I take into account Hegel’s philosophy of nature, his anthropology and furthermore his philosophy of right. I inquire into the connections which are implicit in his philosophy of art, but are never actually addressed. This analysis leads to a more profound understanding of his theory of architecture. The study concludes by extracting the potential of Hegel’s approach for the present discussion on architecture. I address it in the second part, by putting Hegel’s views in dialogue with debates on architectural functionalism, pragmatism and architecture free of any purpose. At the core of this final discussion, the dichotomy of old and new will give insights into the archetype of architecture itself.
