Mateja Kurir

Since its beginnings, architecture has served not only as a means of providing shelter but also as a significant manifestation of power. Starting with definitions of both architecture and power, this paper traces a potential genealogy of their relationship across four distinct historical periods: Antiquity, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the modern era. The analysis situates architecture as a medium of control, surveillance, and social organization, revealing how power structures are embedded within architectural forms and practices. The study concludes by addressing two key challenges of power in architecture: the environmental crisis and war.

Heidegger’s philosophy has influenced largely the humanities and arts and has also been a source of interest in architecture. Although Heidegger has written on architecture, this paper will argue that one of the key topics in his philosophy, intertwined with architecture, is the concept of home (das Heim). In Heidegger’s philosophy, the homely (das Heimische) was intertwined with its opposition, the uncanny (das Unheimliche). This paper discusses the different understandings of home in Heidegger’s seminal works. The paradoxical structure of home in Heidegger’s philosophy is discussed, as home in Heidegger’s philosophy is impossible for modern man with his horrifying nature, perpetuated by the uncanny.

Architecture has always been a decisive manifestation of power. This volume represents an attempt to question and reflect on the relationship between power and architecture from three philosophical perspectives: materialistic, phenomenological and post-structuralist. This collection opens an interdisciplinary investigation that aims to reflect on architecture and its interconnectedness with power within philosophy and cultural theory at large while presenting these concepts using practical examples from the built environment. Internationally recognised authors – philosophers, architectural theorists and historians – Andrew Benjamin, Andrew Ballantyne, Mladen Dolar, Hilde Heynen, Nadir Lahiji, Jeff Malpas, Dean Komel, Elke Krasny, Robert Pfaller, Gerard Reinmuth, Luka Skansi, Douglas Spencer, Teresa Stoppani and Sven-Olov Wallenstein present their reflections in original unpublished essays and interviews. In the presented works, architecture is combined and transgressed by philosophy in a new discussion that focuses only on power. The contributions in this collection open a variety of architectural questions, one of the central among them being the impact of neoliberal capitalism on architecture. Architecture, with its implications on the complex contemporary political and social reality, is severely changing our space and, more globally, our environment. A reflection on the multilayered relation between architecture and power has never been as topical as it is today.

Das Unheimliche je tisto nedomače, grozljivo in strašljivo, ki pri Freudu in Heideggerju izhaja iz najbolj domačega in varnega, obenem pa je tudi eden od običajno spregledanih skupnih točk njunega dela. To je tudi ravnina, na kateri moderna in modernistična arhitektura, kot jo je oblikoval tudi Le Corbusier, zasije v drugačni perspektivi. Jedro arhitekture in metropole moderne bi morebiti lahko prebrali ravno skozi okular te grozljivosti das Unheimliche. Knjiga v slovenski kulturni prostor prinaša prvo poglobljeno analizo prepleta moderne in njene arhitekture z grozljivo tesnobnostjo, ki jo označuje termin das Unheimliche. Predgovor h knjigi je napisal Aleš Vodopivec, strokovni recenziji pa Žarko Paić in Mladen Dolar. Knjiga je izšla pri Inštitutu Nove Revije s podporo Javne agencije za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije, oblikoval jo je Ivian Kan Mujezinović.

The purpose of this article is to present the understanding of architecture within the field of hermeneutic philosophy by describing the ideas of three great hermeneutic philosophers: Heidegger, Gadamer and Vattimo, who approach architecture from the ontological and aesthetic point of view. Heidegger interprets architecture as a fundamental trait of existence; Gadamer values it as the artistic form par excellence, with the form surpassed by the contents, too; and Vattimo discusses three possible ways of perceiving architecture in the postmodern society, related to simultaneity, simulacra and the question of ornamentality.