Forms of continuity in architectural space

Abstract

Starting from understanding the architectural space as one of many modes of continual urban space, the research focuses on the interpretation of concepts developed in order to describe the properties of the so-called cognitive architecture. In the last decade, guided by the issue of social effects of architecture, many investigations in the field of theory of architecture were conducted within the framework constituted from the philosophical elaborations of the notion of affect, mainly by Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari and Brian Massumi. In some proposals, the concept of cognitive architecture was established to describe the impact that the space occupied with new information and communication technologies exerts on the domains of intellect and mental disposition, coupled with the practices of every-day life. Cognitive architecture emerges as a consequence of the intertwinings of physical and mental processes in individuals’ bodies, as well as between them, that characterize social space in contemporary communication-information age. The concept of cognitive architecture thus emphasizes the ways in which technologies of communication shape the mental sphere of humans and its relation to material processes in humans’ bodies. Paralleling this phenomenon, in the field of architectural design, the architect Philippe Rahm has developed a practice based on investigations into the morphogenetic potential of material flows in space. The flows in question comprise a series of chemical, physical and biological transformations through which non-living materials and human mind and body become directly connected. Comparing and intersecting theoretical interpretations of cognitive architecture with Rahm’s design strategies, we shall offer a set of notions that trace new forms of unity between mind, body and architectural space, as a contribution to the exploration of the concept of bodily-mental-social continuum.