LIFE AND DEATH OF FORM IN THE ARCHITECTURAL UNIVERSE

Ada Kwiatkowska

Abstract

The architectural form can be metaphorically described as a 'vessel of time'. Depending on whether we are dealing with the concept of historical or mythical time, this vessel takes the shape of either a contextual form, which refers to a specific place in time and space, or a universal form, which refers to the abstract world of architectural ideas. The aim of the research was to determine how the concepts of time and ideological conflicts between historical contextualism and ahistorical modernism influence the definition of forms in the architectural universe. The research was based on the analysis of selected theories from historiosophy and on a critical analysis of the manifestos of architects of modernism and postmodernism. The discourse between historicism and modernism mainly concerns the acceptance or rejection of the transience and death of form, and architects' dreams of finding an immortal form that functions beyond time - the Holy Grail of architecture.

Article:

Kwiatkowska, Ada (2025). Life and death of form in the architectural universe, Defining the architectural space: Architecture and History, Cracow Universtiy of Technology, vol.3, pp.39-48. (photos by Ada Kwiatkowska)                   

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