What distinguishes architecture from other art forms is that it can only be fully understood when experienced through time. Architecture requires participation; we must become part of it and rely on the revealing and unfolding consciousness of the environment of which we are a part. Therefore, time is an integral and fundamental element of architectural experience.
The French philosopher Henri Bergson argued for an alternative understanding of time, termed durée. In his argument, time is no longer something to be measured; it is experienced as a continuous qualitative multiplicity. There is no abstract division of time, only a continuous becoming. Although Bergson seldomly refers to architecture, the relevance of his work is multiple. He is a fundamental influence in 20th-century philosophy, foundational for many authors who have had a direct influence on the theory of architecture and theories of mind and consciousness related to experience, i.e. William James, Alfred North Whitehead, James Gibson, Susanne Langer, Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Karen Barad, and many others who find his work still relevant in the present day.
The following thesis explores the interrelationships between architecture and philosophy through a reading of Bergson’s oeuvre and its relevance to the discipline of architecture. Bergson invites us to think in new ways, particularly about time, urging us to think of time concretely and consider the real act of moving and change as a qualitative multiplicity, not as something to be quantified and mapped onto space. Several themes are prevalent in Bergson’s philosophy, which are fundamental for developing a Bergsonian understanding of architecture: the relationships between intuition and the intellect, perception and memory, matter and the virtual, creativity and consciousness. Because of his influence on others, Bergson can be a unifying thread through theories that otherwise seem apart. Therefore, this research requires a pluralist approach regarding the philosophy and theory of architecture.
Therefore, the research is divided into two approaches. One is understanding Bergson’s philosophy (its context, criticism, and influence), unveiling a lineage throughout twentieth-century theories. The second is the analysis of particular case studies that demonstrate new possible understandings of architecture with the underpinning of Bergson’s philosophy. The main objective is to demonstrate that a Bergsonian Philosophy of Architecture is possible and, furthermore, that it is a legitimate paradigm in the contemporary production and theory of architecture.
Several lines of enquiring are identified, i.e., the relevance of Bergson’s theory of durée in the understanding of architecture as a process or event versus an object; the duration of the design process and its changing nature from conception, through construction, to lived space; the temporality of architecture within the built environment; or the temporal nature of architectural experience and the roles memory, perception, and imagination play in that experience. A Bergsonian reading of architecture can reveal new ways of understanding the environment we live in and new understandings of architectural theory and its practice.
