An analysis of space

UnrestrictedThere is an intrinsic relationship between architecture and space; nevertheless there are numerous filters for the understanding and conception of both. Of the various filters it can be argued that mental process, social praxis and physical engagement are necessary for a spatial discourse rooted within the discipline of architecture. Lefebvre and Bachelard play particular importance in this paper because of the above. Their individual theoretical framework, sources of this paper, paved positions for the developed arguments. Lefebvre, through his analytical and systematic, "structured", break down of this abstract concept of space, offered measurable conditions to frame an "objective" understanding of space, rooting it as largely a sociological construct, allowing [perhaps] a collective conscious to engage and define it, thereby proposing an universal structure for understanding it; Bachelard approaches the concept as a "philosophical" excursion, framing it through a "narrative" of emotions, memories, and poetics which seemingly imposes a "self" reading into the conception of space and its meanings. The two authors are intrinsically different in their approaches until one seizes that Bachelard's "narrative" as having roots in the larger sociological consciousness. This puts into question the authenticity of the "self", the "subjective" and perhaps [re]structures it as part of a larger social collective. Architects Bernard Tschumi and Peter Zumthor are two practitioners cited in this paper as having such structured (Tschumi) and philosophical (Zumthor) inquiries and tendencies in their conception of architecture. Tschumi's Parc de la Villette and Zumthor's Bath at Val exhibit such intricate ideological complexities and are used as analytical case studies and comparative models