Gadamer and the hermeneutical experience of architecture

Abstract

In the hermeneutical reflection of the artworks, Gadamer discusses architecture as one of the artistic expressions where one can reconsider the ontological-interpretative relationship with things in general. Rethinking the representative structure of the hermeneutic experience of works of art, Gadamer introduces architecture as a peculiar artistic expression, which works of art resist current aesthetic positions, reinserting them in the practical sphere of life. This topic finds important echoes in architectural theory and practice, as it enables a new relationship with works of architecture, beyond from the aesthetic variables. The present article aims to discuss the hermeneutic experience of architecture as a decisive interpretive moment of the relationship with works of art, explaining the ontological-hermeneutic character of Gadamer’s thought and the hermeneutic trace of works of architecture. For that, we were beginning from a dialogue established by Gadamer and two architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, about the essence of architecture. The gadamerian answer showed us the horizon of thematization of architectural works as an extension of the experience of the work of art, as was discussed in Truth and Method, notably in the discussion about artistic representation and rehabilitation of the occasional and decorative. Hermeneutic thematization consequently finds repercussions in architectural theory and practice, indicating an alternative horizon of questioning of the meaning of architecture and urbanism, placing it and referring it in the horizon of life in common.