• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.31-39
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• 2019

This research analyzes the involvement of hermeneutics in architectural history and theory studies and its pedagogy in the West after the 1950s. The research focuses on representative architectural schools in the West. In particular, this paper examines from the curricula of Joseph Rykwert and Dalibor Vesely at the University of Essex to their former students who played a significant role in expanding the history and theory courses in the late 20th century in the North America such as Alberto $P{\acute{e}}rez-G{\acute{o}}mez^{\prime}s$ (McGill University) and David Leatherbarrow (University of Pennsylvania). Through their leadership and other related architectural historians' efforts: 1) hermeneutics have been applied in architectural history studies from the critical perspectives of post-modern philosophy; 2) hermeneutics help stimulate discussions of thoughtful architectural design, enabling strong interactions between design theories and the embodied meanings of buildings; 3) these schools have produced and involved many prominent scholars who actively practice and develop the discourse of architectural history and theory from the perspectives of hermeneutics; 4) Finally, the hermeneutic approach in architectural history studies has enlightened many achieved architects' thoughtful design practice and theories within the emerging context of regional criticism and international cross-cultural architecture.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.125-134
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• 2018

This study examines Dalibor Vesely's theoretical proposition of communicative space and tries to develop it through a review of the contemporary architectural case. Vesely poses a critical question about communication: how do the situational conditions of our everyday life and the spatial characteristics of the natural world in which we live communicate through representation. He emphasizes the spatial and situational conditions and the role of representation in communication, arguing that architecture should create the formation of communicative space to restore its primary role as the corporeal foundation of culture. This study thus focuses on one of the critical concepts of his theory: "the communicative movement," which is, according to him, ontological and situational because it animates and transforms human circumstances as a whole. Further, it pursues some practical knowledge of creating the communicative space, by examining the design theory and practice of Zaha Hadid, who thematizes communication and movement in her architectural approach. This study analyses the different levels of representation and modes of movement in her architectural space to reveal the possibilities and limits of its communicative roles. We will find that the representation of Hadid's architectural space is not the formal representation of reality, but a mathematical and projective representation of abstract concepts. Despite its apparent aesthetic consistency, the inward and self-referential relation between the individual elements of the architectural space reveals its limit for the communicative space.