Several professors from the University of Valencia have participated in the recent publication of ‘Textos fundamentales de la estética’ de la arquitectura, which is part of the new collection ‘Línea de fuga’, of the publishing company General de Ediciones de Arquitectura directed by Romà de la Calle, professor of Aesthetics and currently honorary lecturer at this academic institution. The monograph aims at analysing "the literary production that can be understood as a place of convergence between philosophy and architecture in a broad sense, from the dawn of the Enlightenment to the present time", says the editorial coordinator, Alberto Rubio.
Professor of Metaphysics and Theory of Knowledge of the University of Valencia Manuel Vázquez explains that this publication is part of “a broader initiative, developed in close collaboration with the Universitat Politècnica de València, intended to create a space of confluence and constant dialogue between architecture and philosophy, which are academically separate but conceptually very similar”.
Vázquez notes: "both philosophy and architecture —the latter being the most theoretical of the technical disciplines and whose work determines our existence as individuals and citizens in terms of space— point to inhabiting, to the human sense of things which turns building into something more than a mere technical construction drawn by profitability, as is often the case".
In connection with this criticism to the dominant economistic model, David Pérez, professor of Contemporary Artistic Discourse at the Universitat Politècnica de València, emphasizes "the importance of transdisciplinary discourses when problematising practices and knowledge instituted autonomously". In this regard, he claims that only "through hybridisation between discourses can we provide a deep sense to the atomised nonsense of our present".
ESCAPE FROM UNIFORMITY
Professor Romà de la Calle states that the collection Línea de Fuga "is thought of as a communicative mirror of the research domains initiated by the group. This way, a new space for dialogue has been created between disciplines so humanly overlapping each other and yet so —unjustifiably— far in academia as are architecture, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and aesthetics, with the common substrates of life, art, thought and culture”.
“Our collection and its contents seek to consolidate a double idea, both in research praxis and in the domain of creation: the aim is to escape the homogenising power of disciplines and to promote, to the maximum extent, the plurality of common horizons through the innovative lever and the creative impulse that ensures the enrichment of the vital plot characterising existing relationships”, argues De la Calle.
SYMPTOM OF EFFERVESCENCE OF VALUES
For his part, Alberto Rubio underlines the fact that over recent years “architecture has conspicuously renounced its own nature to the extent that, at the mercy of foreign models, it has moved away from its autonomy as a social discipline”, so that today “it is hardly recognisable”. In fact, the current economic crisis and the end of the housing bubble "spur this spirit of dialogue between aesthetics and architecture to find new models with more ethical values", says Manuel Vázquez. This is an essential aspect for David Pérez since “any activity, be it artistic or not, should be driven by an ethical commitment".
This confluence between architecture and philosophy was once favoured by the participation of many of their colleagues in the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Philosophical Thought of the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Sciences of the University of Valencia and now aims to be extended to research projects, seminars and even a specific master’s degree on the subject. The fact that such initiatives have arisen with a multidisciplinary nature is also “a reflection of the critical effervescence taking place at the social, academic and institutional levels as a protest against unrest and as a critical reflection on its symptoms," insists Professor Manuel Vázquez.
Romà de la Calle adds that the third volume of the collection Línea de Fuga is already on its way entitled La ilusión de la duración. Permanencia y caducidad en el arte y la arquitectura, which will crown the first two: Huellas urbanas. La ciudad a través de sus trazas and Textos fundamentales de la estética de la arquitectura.
Last update: 8 de april de 2015 07:00.
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