The Baroque Architectural Space : Phenomenological Conception of the Space in the Work of Czech Art Historians
Abstract
This lecture is the summary of opinions coming from 20th century Czech art historians which wrote about Baroque architectural space and which were inspired by phenomenological philosophy. The topic of space is very complicated, because it interferes with many science fields.
I deal with the topic of architectural space from the art historian's point of view in this lecture. I am concerned with Baroque architecture, so I give examples from this time period during the lecture.
I am inspired by Hans Sedlmayr's thinking and I try to explain the language of architecture to the listeners. I describe tendencies to emancipate architectural space, emphasis on the time based experience of architectural space and interest in luminary qualities of architectural space.
I focus on the relationship between the space and the matter in the Czech theory of architectural space. The discussion about architectural space among Czech art historians is based on essential question: what is the architectural space? The tectonic structure which defines the space, or the space itself without walls? I will describe philosophical aspects of Czech discussion about architectural space.
The lecture is not intended only for philosophers, but it is intended for art historians and architects as well.