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ArgumentNo. 9/2017

Manifestations of time in architecture: aspects of the relation between time and promenade

  • / “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest, Romania

Abstract

A third aspect of temporality in architecture is linked to knowing a building by promenading it, in the sense of time-investing. The architectural space in its experiential sense incorporates the effort of first-hand experiencing and taking in the built object. This understanding stems from inside, by living-in or occasionally strolling through it, but also from the outside, discovering a building as part of the site through motion, thus sensing connections to the surrounding objects. The architectural promenade is an assimilation process, in the same way as performative arts turn time into „experience” and „message”.

This topic deals with multiple interpretations and variations upon the concept of „architectural promenade” of Le Corbusier as well as with Zumthor’s „atmospheres”, with our own emotional filters when contemplating architecture but also with filters incorporated in design by that creator transmitting the message. The promenade implies several factors: a participant - receptor, a built environment for him to interact with and the landscape. Thus the built environment becomes the mediator between the receptor and the landscape, choosing to hide or reveal, as a curtain with several degrees of opacity that discloses reality according to the creative will of the architect.

The intent of this paper deals with research by means of examples on various aspects of the relation between Time and Promenade, as defining aspect of the built object anchoring it to the surrounding space. This study takes the form of a debate incentive, baring in mind the topic’s vastness and the fact that it can only be covered in a fragmentary way.

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