Philosophy of architecture

Philosophy of Architecture is a branch of philosophy of art, dealing with aesthetic value of architecture, its semantics and relations with development of culture.

Plato, whose influence on architecture is widely documented (e.g., 'idealism', 'neo-Platonic' architecture), may be counted as part of a classical geometric model of cosmology, the popularity of which could be attributed to earlier thinkers such as Pythagoras. In early history, philosophers distinguished architecture ('technion') from building ('demiorgos'), attributing the former to mental traits, and the latter to the divine or natural. It was only with Socratic irony that the name craftsman could become representative of a religious deity. The presence of some degree of formalism ala Platonism continues to be an important trait in distinguishing one architectural style from another, and thus in distinguishing the philosophy of a style.

Due to the nature of critique, the philosophy of architecture is an outgrowth of the philosophy of art, which began to be expressed in books on architecture and history of architecture during the latter half of the twentieth century. Prior to that, largely because of its reliance on technology and engineering, architecture was seen as incompatible, or beneath, the proper subject areas of classical aesthetics as delimited by, notably, Immanuel Kant and Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, with their ideal of "pure art."

As it was noted by Michel Foucault, the architecture is able to set the life of society, and therefore it is particularly important for understanding of the person's values and culture. In "Discipline and Punish" Foucault analized contemporary culture through architecture project of principally new prison Panopticon. The point of this project by Jeremy Bentham was to create a special transparent environment for prisoners, where everyone would be under constant surveillance. Although the project was not realized, Bentham's thought deeply influenced ideology of prisons, changing social practices of punishment. Simultaneously with its main conclusions Foucault reached other goal - his instrumental use of architecture in cultural studies showed the potential of this philosophical theme.

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