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Paul Guyer-essay-Kant Philosophy Architecture
Paul Guyer-essay-Kant Philosophy Architecture
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I. BEFORE AND AFTER KANT lie that to the thought that a work of architecture
should give expression to more abstract, meta-
Architecture does not loom large in Kant's physical aes-
ideas, can be seen as a consequence of, or
at least allowed by, Kant's own loose specification
thetics, nor has Kant's thought about architecture,
of thought
such as it is, loomed large in the history of just what sort of intellectual content aesthetic
about architecture. But there is a profound ideas differ-
have.
ence in the philosophy of architecture- byTowhich the extent that the philosophy of architec-
I mean here views about architecture in the writ- ture might be thought to have had any influence
ings of canonical figures in the history of philoso-on architectural theory, Kant might then be seen
phy and philosophical aesthetics, not the broaderas responsible not only for the idea that architec-
body of professional writing that might go underture should express ideas but also for the com-
the name of "architectural theory"- before andpeting views about what ideas architecture should
after Kant.1 Given the indisputable influence of express. Of course, as Hegel famously said, the owl
Kant's aesthetics on the next epoch of the disci-of Minerva flies only at dusk, that is, philosophical
pline, above all the aesthetics of German ideal-analysis often follows changes in cultural or sci-
ism in the forty years following the publication ofentific practice rather than producing them, and
Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment in 1790,expressivist developments in architectural prac-
it thus seems natural to look for the shift in philo- tice and theory may have preceded rather than
sophical thinking about architecture within Kant'ssucceeded the Kantian and post-Kantian shift
aesthetics. The shift is there to be found. The shift
to an expressivist philosophy of architecture-
I have in mind is from an essentially Vitruvian think of the executed and unrealized but pub-
conception of architecture, according to which its lished work of Etienne-Louis Boullée and Claude-
two chief goals are beauty and utility, to a cogni- Nicolas Ledoux from the 1770s, for example.2 But
tivist or expressivist conception of architecture, in even if the Kantian shift in the philosophy of archi-
which, like other forms of fine art, architecture is tecture did not cause a shift in architecture proper,
thought of as expressing and communicating ab- it can at least be thought not to have closed off,
but to have left open, competing conceptions of
stract ideas, not just aiming for beauty and utility.
the intellectual ambitions and imperatives of ar-
The decisive factor in this turn, I would suggest, is
Kant's thesis that all art involves the expression of
chitecture in architectural practice and theory.
I will only briefly characterize the radically
"aesthetic ideas," that is, the expression of rational
ideas in a form that yields inexhaustible material divergent tone of philosophies of architecture
for the play of the imagination. But I will also prior to and after Kant before I give my ac-
argue that the range of forms that this general count of Kant's own incidental yet influential
thought can take in the philosophy of architec- thought about architecture. Philosophical thought
ture, from the thought that a work of architecture about architecture before Kant, I asserted, was
should express and communicate its own function dominated by the Vitruvian paradigm. The Ten
to the thought that it should express the nature of Books on Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pol-
its structure and of the physical forces that under- lio, thought to have been written between 33 and
but, more
14 BCE, are primarily importa
a manual on
sign, and construction
buildingof public
for bu
its inte
ous types, fromtion of "sacred
breakwaters prec
and ci
ples and theaters, private with
bourhoods villas,
suian
machinery, and devote
proper only a few
locations of
lines to what wepicture
mightgalleries
think of re
and aesthetic theories of architectu
der, eurythmy, and
Chapter II, under to beauty, the heading while "T ar
tal Principles of tributeArchitecture," somewhat V t
that architecture The depends
two basic onvalue ord
tion eurythmia and
, beauty.
symmetria, decor ,
or oeceonomia , This
or Vitruvian
(in emphasisthe
on utility and beauty
early twe
translation of as M.
the two fundamental
H. values of architecture re-
Morgan) "Or
ment, Eurythmy, mained prevalent
Symmetry,in eighteenth-century philoso- Prop
omy."4 In Book phy of I, Chapter
architecture III,
prior to Kant. For illustration, I Vi
that all types ofchoose two authors who not only
building express this point
must be co
due reference" with fir
io particular mitas,
clarity but also who utilitas
enjoyed enor- ,
"durability, convenience,
mous popularity and influence in their and own times beau
tions between these two
and places precisely lists
because they gave andsuch clear the
them may be understood theto follow
voice to widely held assumptions. I refer Chris-
tas or durabilitytianisFreiherr
not von Wolff an in Germany
aestheticand Henry q
Home, Lord Kames,
but a physical and in Britain, Wolff being qualit
historical the
chief voice of the German Enlightenment
and its other properties: it is until what
he was dethroned by
ing with its utilitas or Kant and Kames being the
convenienc
chief voice of the Scottish
or beauty to endure and Enlightenment.
be enjoye Wolff
it is not a value(1679-1754)
in its wrote an enormous
own series of text-
right bu
books, beginning with
strumental condition for logic and metaphysics
the conti and
of the intrinsic values
then covering every known of a buildin
field of theoretical and
and beauty. Similarly,
practical philosophy, first on in Germanthe and then, tofirs
is not so much reachan independent
a wider audience, and at even greater length, v
ings but rather in Latin.
the In his Vernünftige Gedancken über Gott ,
requirement
and their other der Welt,
virtues und der Seele des Menschen
as efficien ("Ratio-
nal Thoughts
that is, as cheaply as on God, the World, and the Soul
possible of
relati
Man"), orthe
site durability of "German Metaphysics,"
structure: first published "E
in 1719, he used architectural examples
the proper management of tomater illus-
as well as a thrifty balancing
trate his central conception of perfection, which of
mon sense in the construction
he analyzed as the concordance of the parts of of w
any object or action for the realization
arrangement, eurythmy, symmetry of its goal.
are then left to But realize
Wolff does not just manifest
thethetwo Vitruvian mo
paradigm in his use of
of utility and beauty. architectural examples
More particul in
his metaphysics; he also devoted
rythmy, and symmetry all an entire
concern treatise
portions amongto thearchitectureshape,in his four-volume size,encyclopedia and
of mathematics, which appeared
members of a building, both in German
features o
contribute to itsand inbeauty;
Latin. Here, Wolff begins his treatise on
arrangeme
the Principles of Architecture
layout or "groundplan" of withthe
the claim thatbuild
"architecture is a science
tributes to its utility as for constructing
wella build- as to
also the elevation
ing so that of the
it is in complete building
correspondence with
the intentions of the architect."9 more
be thought to contribute This locates the to i
to its convenience.7
harmony or agreement And propriet
in which perfection always
consists in the relation between the intentions
some extent, observation of traditi of
the architect and the for
fore beloved patterns building thatconstruc
results from
orders of columnshis or her plans and and supervision. However, as he
entablature
We findthe
proceeds, Wolff makes it clear that exactlyintention
the same assumption in the
of an architect is always to produce a structure
comments on architecture in the Elements of Crit-
that is both formally beautiful icism as well
published asScottish
by the useful jurist and man of
and comfortable, so the perfection
letters Henryof the
Home, Lord inten-
Kames, in 1761. Kames,
a cousin the
tion can only be realized through of David Hume whose lordship came
perfection
from his seat on
of both form and utility in the building the highest
itself. court of Scotland,
Thus,
published"[a]
Wolff argues on the one hand that numerous works of jurisprudence
building is and
space that is enclosed by art inhistory,
order but his Elements
that of Criticism was one of
certain
the most widelyand
functions can proceed there securely read works
unhin-of the Scottish En-
dered," and that "[a] building is comfortable
lightenment and was certainly theif mostly widely
read work
all necessary functions can proceed of the Scottish
within school of aesthetics un-
it with-
out hindrance and vexation."10 til These definitions
well into the nineteenth century. The general
form the basis for a requirementpremise
ofofperfection
Karnes's work is in
that we enjoy the un-
hindered
the utility of a building. On the other motion
hand,of thehow-
mind along what he calls
ever, Wolff also introduces his "ideas
standard definition
in a train," and that beauty and other aes-
theticis
of beauty, namely, that "[bjeauty qualities facilitate such
perfection or motion in one way
the necessary appearance thereof, or another; this idea as
insofar maythebe regarded as one of
former or the latter is perceived, and of
the forerunners causes a
Kant's conception of our plea-
pleasure in us," and then asserts sure in beauty
that as due
"[a] to the free play of imag-
build-
ing must be constructed beautifully ination and and
understanding.
decora- But Kames does not
tively."11 This is the basis for make the any
requirement
explicit use of thisof thesis in his chapter
formal rather than utilitarian perfection on "Gardening inanda Architecture,"
build- which is the
ing. Through the remainder of the treatise,
penultimate both
chapter of the lengthy Elements ; by
conceptions of perfection are at this point inThus,
work. the book, he must assume that the
Wolff
argues that the parts of buildings reader understands
should exem- what beauty is. Instead, his
plify certain proportions simply pointbecause
is that gardens
they and are
buildings, and their var-
pleasing to the eye, and he gives iousacomponents,
lengthy "may
analy-
be destined for use solely,
sis of the proportions of the five for beauty solely, ororders
canonical for both," thus that build-
of columns that is based throughout on may
ings in particular the be as-
distinguished "into three
sumption that certain proportions simply
kinds, namely, appear
what are intended for utility solely,
more harmonious to us than others- this is indeed what for ornament solely, and what for both."13
the rationale for Wolffs inclusion of this trea- Thus, Kames does not suggest that each work of
tise in his mathematical compendium.12 But Wolff architecture must possess both utility and beauty,
but he does suggest that these two are the sole
gives equal time to considerations of utility, begin-
ning with a (Vitruvian) discussion of the correct merits of architecture. He also suggests that it is
use of building materials, continuing through dis-typically easy to design works that are intended
cussions of structural matters, such as that lowerto be either merely useful or merely beautiful,
stories of columns must be heavier than higher and that "[t]he great difficulty of contrivance, re-
ones because they carry more weight and that the spects buildings that are intended to be beauti-
pitch of roofs must be determined by balancing ful as well as ornamental."14 The greater part of
the need to shed rain and snow (which points his to- discussion thus concerns how these two goals
ward a steeper pitch) with the weight of the roof are to be conjointly realized in the same objects.
itself (which would argue for less pitch), and con-
Like Wolff, he begins his illustration of this point
cluding with discussions of such matters as (once with windows, doors, and stairs, mentioning how
again) the proper sizing of windows for both illu-various aspects of them are determined by util-
mination and the human pleasure of looking out ity-since human beings are all pretty much the
same size, for example, whether in a large build-
on the passing scene, the location of staircases for
proper circulation, and the construction of priv- ing or a small building, "[t]he steps of a stair ought
ies with proper ventilation and seats that can to re-be accommodated to the human figure, with-
main clean. Our overall pleasure in a building, out regarding any other proportion"- but yet con-
in other words, depends on both its beauty and siderations of utility must also be combined with
utility. the requirements of freedom- for example, while