The aim of the course is to shed light on the potential of phenomenology to serve as a discourse for innovative and meaningful architecture.

Aspiration for innovation characterizes cotemporary architectural making. The question of how one creates innovative and stimulating places is layered, but, there is no doubt that meaningful, inspiring and original architecture cannot stem solely from technological, aesthetic or theoretical tools but must relate to human meaning and experiences.

The course will reveal the many ways in which phenomenology – a philosophical position interested in human sensual, emotional and cognitive experience - can serve as a basis for innovative meaningful architectural thinking and making in the modern era - architectural thinking and making which is tied to human existence and is open to meditative, speculative and unknown realms.

Through the reading of philosophical texts we will understand the manner in which phenomenology addresses sensual perception (sight, hearing, smell, and touch) and cognitive perception (of themes such as the house, the sacred, memory etc.). We will understand (the) how phenomenology describes the relationships between us and our built and unbuilt environment. We will then examine how phenomenology suggests relating to technology, materiality, form and light so that they connect to human sensual, cognitive and emotional awareness.

Through the reading of texts written by leading architectural theoreticians we will understand why and how phenomenology contributes to innovative contemporary architectural thinking and making based on sensual and emotional meditative experiences.

Together, we will delve into innovative modern and contemporary buildings stemming from phenomenological thinking, expressing phenomenological ideas, and offering phenomenological experiences.

In the Pro-seminar papers students are asked to investigate architectural case studies that exhibit phenomenological attributes. Using phenomenological texts the students are required to discuss a phenomenological theme that the architect has approached in his work. By means of a thorough architectural examination of the project the students are expected to illustrate how through the use of architectural components such as: form, technology, material, light, shadow and program (architectural narrative) the chosen project offers platforms for meaningful human sensual and cognitive/habitual experiences – which link the exposed to the concealed, the familiar to and the unknown.