2016, January. Istanbul

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Article integrated  in Theories of Architectural Design subject

 

 

Identity in Architecture

The present article precedes the study Identity in Architecture in which its main aim is therefore 
to explore the psychic implications of architecture rather than its practical side. Even though the 
architecture’s instrumental purpose is deeply related with its psychological function, this study 
will be focused at the second one. 

“(…) architecture is a human product which should order and improve our relationships with the 
environment.”

 

Man’s relationship with the environment isn’t as simple as it may seem. Man 
needs symbols; representations of life-situations. Living is changing: is changing activities; is 
changing surroundings; is changing moods; is changing perception; it’s existing across time. This 
implies that:

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 .The environment changes

 .Man changes

 .The environment  ‘looks’ changed according to our immediate state 

This relation between man and his environment is relative and inconstant, because man’s 
immediate awareness of the phenomenal world is given through perception.  

 

Phenomenon    “designates every ‘something’ which may be experienced nothing  

                        (…) does not designate anything, but expresses that I do not experience                                     anything(…) nothing is present to me”  

According to Norberg-Schulz definition, the meaning of the phenomenon will always 
depend on the circumstance in which it happens.  
“Things enter the collective memory if they do not serve practical purposes but exist as 
symbol, icons or other types of representations of meanings.” Identity is strictly connected with 
memory. Collective memory will grant us the past, and this psychological structure is 
homogeneous, because, even though there are many collective memories, history eliminates 
the differences.  It will help organizing the sense of present and future, but it will never be as 
stable as the past one, due to the perception and the context of each one of us. 
 Therefore, when an individual identity results from belonging to a place, it means that 
that place is somehow connected with his collective memory, and that the individual identity 
also relates himself with the genius loci of the place. 
 In the study, all this concepts are going to be profoundly explored, in order to 
understand them and their correlations, and also to finally express and define Identity in 
Architecture. As a practical approach to this theme, two or more buildings and spaces are going 
to be compared and, posteriorly, discussed theirs Identity.