Space, Time
Identity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5792232 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carmen Popescu (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 189-206 |
| Publication date | 2006-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | National Identities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1460-8944 • E-ISSN: 1469-9907 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14608940600842060 |
| OpenAlex | W1982182144 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 5 |
Perceived as a symbol of the world and experienced as a powerful frame that shapes the cognitive process, architecture is intimately related to identity. It embodies a narrative that can be appropriated and turned into a 'reflective' discourse. Identity represents a key concept of the modern era, and its appraisal results from changing perception of space and time. These changes engendered a loss of references and, hence, a need for identity. Pictured as immutable, identity is in reality a subjective, evolving concept, defined by the process of identification. The latter appears as a more relevant category, producing various responses and thus explaining the multifaceted aspect of the images of identity. Constructed under the direct guidance of power and culture, the images of identity are forged through the intimate collaboration of ideology and aesthetics. Conceptually, the primary referents of identification are subsumed by space and time. Yet these two also constitute the fundamental coordinates of architecture. Hence architecture appears as a privileged medium of expression, representing both an instrument and a vehicle that conveys identity. Time brings a perspectival understanding of tradition, and thereby transforms history into a major referent. Space exalts the values of appropriateness and adequacy to the site, perceived as a matrix shaping the characteristics of its inhabitants and of their artefacts, as well. In architectural terms, the concept of time catalysed the creation of historicisms and various 'national styles', while the concept of space favoured all forms of regionalisms and 'localisms'. Keywords: IdentityIdentificationArchitectural NarrativeAppropriatenessModernitySpaceTimeHistoricismArchitectural Nationalism'National Styles'Architectural RegionalismLocalismContextualism Notes 1. 'identifiée en quelque sorte avec l'homme, puisque le besoin d'y recourir prend naissance avec lui'. 2. 'Une ville, un village, des maisons, sont un élément descriptif; soit que l'on considère leur forme et leur matériaux, leur adaptation à un genre de vie, rural ou urbain, agricole ou herbager, ils jettent un jour sur les rapports de l'homme et du sol.' 3. I consider, as a convention, that the modern age begins with the nineteenth century and the publishing of Hegel's Philosophy of History: a fundamental work for defining the new era. 4. The section comes from a text entitled HE, published in Kafka (1946 Kafka, F. 1946. The Great Wall of China: Stories and reflections, New York: Schocken Books. [Google Scholar]). 5. The title of this chapter and the title of the introductory text are purposely recycling Giedion's (1967 [1940] Giedion, S. 1967 [1940]. Space, time and architecture: The growth of a new tradition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]) title, Space, Time and Architecture. The reasons are twofold: to propose an alternative reading of the two constitutive elements-space and time, and to demonstrate that for the period studied (nineteenth and twentieth centuries) identity represents a major axis of the history of architecture. 6. While Lewis Mumford pointed it out, Giedion coined the term 'new regionalism' in 1954 in the article of the same title published in Architecture, You and Me (Giedion, 1958 Giedion, S. 1958. Architecture, you and me, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre, followed by Kenneth Frampton, developed this 'new regionalism' into a 'critical regionalism'. 7. Alexander Tzonis (Lefaivre & Tzonis, 2003 Lefaivre, L. and Tzonis, A. 2003. Critical regionalism: Architecture and identity in a globalized world, Munich: Prestel. [Google Scholar]) used the label 'chauvinistic' to describe certain manifestations of identitarian architecture in the nineteenth century. 8. Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann analyses this long filiation in his Toward a Geography of Art (Kaufmann, 2004 Kaufmann, T. D. 2004. Toward a geography of art, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]). 9. 'au milieu des productions les plus informes, dans les monuments les moins importants et les plus fragiles'. 10. 'au lieu de chercher à constater l'âge d'une production de l'Art, par l'érudition qui en explique le sujet, il faudrait au contraire en expliquer le sujet, par le style du monument et d'après les principes de l'Art'. 11. In 1813, to be precise (see, for a condensed analysis, Kaufmann, 2004 Kaufmann, T. D. 2004. Toward a geography of art, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]). 12. As remarked Daniel Arrasse (1972 Arrasse, D. 1972. Note sur Aloïs Riegl et la notion de 'volonté d'art' (Kunstwollen). Scolies Cahiers de recherche de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 2: 124-132. [Google Scholar]), history of art was nevertheless dominated by an evolutionist conception until Riegl (1972 Riegl, A. 1972. Œuvre de la nature (Naturwerk) et œuvre d'art (Kunstwerk). Scolies Chaiers de recherche de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 2: 133-151. [Google Scholar]) imposed the historical point of view. 13. 'Le temps qui du battement de ses grandes ailes efface toute chose.' 14. 'La géographie a précédé, subsiste et durera, alors que nos civilisations sont passagères.' 15. 'Ce que recherche l'architecture d'aujourd'hui et ce que beaucoup d'esprits ne comprennent pas encore, est justement qu'elle tende à tenir compte du terrain, et qu'à la fois, elle dresse fièrement l'édifice abstrait, tel qu'il est ici [en Grèce] réalisé.' 16. Giedion mentions also the 'bird's eye view and the enormous magnification of the microscope', which 'brought us a new perception of nature and its prodigies' (in the French version of his book: 'Space, Time, Architecture'; Paris: Editions Denoël, 2004, p. 257). Additional informationNotes on contributorsCarmen PopescuArt and architectural historian, Carmen Popescu is associate researcher at the Centre of Research in Art History 'André Chastel' (CNRS, Paris). She has worked extensively on identity in architecture, publishing numerous articles. She is the author of Le style national roumain. Construire une nation à travers l'architecture (Presses Universitaires de Rennes/Simetria, 2004). She was the scientific director of two international conferences on nationalisms and regionalisms in architecture (Bucharest, 1999, 2000), and edited the proceedings (National and Regional in Architecture: Between History and Practice, Bucharest: Simetria, 2002). Carmen Popescu is currently working on a project on 'Modernity in the Balkans: Progress and Specificity
Identification · Identity formation · Referent · Symbol (formal · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation
| Citations per year | 0.19 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2010 - 2021 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |