Philosophy of Architecture

Philosophy of architecture is a branch of philosophy of art, dealing with aesthetic value of architecture, its semantics and relations with development of culture. In early history, philosophers distinguished architecture ('technion') from building ('demiorgos'), attributing the former to mental traits, and the latter to the divine or natural. Due to the nature of critique, the philosophy of architecture is an outgrowth of the philosophy of art, which began to be expressed in books on architecture and history of architecture during the latter half of the twentieth century. Prior to that, largely because of its reliance on technology and engineering, architecture was seen as incompatible, or beneath, the proper subject areas of classical aesthetics as delimited by, notably, Immanuel Kant and Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, with their ideal of "pure art." As it was noted by postmodern philosopher Michel Foucault, the architecture is able to set the life of society, and therefore it is particularly important for understanding of the person's values and culture.

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