The Architectural and Urban Space in Norberg-Schulz's Phenomenological Approach. A critical review

Abstract

In the course of thirty years and after initial structuralist influences, Christian Norberg-Schulz would present interesting phenomenological approaches to architecture and the city. Within his theoretical production, most of these postulates would be exposed in the so-called phenomenological trilogy. It is convenient to emphasize the critical context of the second half of the 20th century with the modernity. The space, the place, the architecture, the city, the existence, the history, the object or the notion of inhabiting, would be concepts that Norberg-Schulz would work deeply under this phenomenological approach. Postmodernism and neo-eclecticism, in the architectural context contemporary to Norberg-Schulz's postulates, shared some interpretations. The important general influence for architecture and the city of his theoretical legacy would end up having more echo than his phenomenological particularities. The holistic consideration of the phenomenological problem in architecture could provide a new vision in this regard.