What Is an Architectural Concept? The “Concept” of Deleuze and “Project” of Eisenman

Snežana Vesnić

doi:10.2298/FID1704122V

Authors

Snežana Vesnić Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID1704122V

Keywords:

notion, concept, conception, architecture, philosophy

Abstract

Two great theories – one in philosophy, one in architecture – emerge nearly simultaneously in the twentieth century: Gilles Deleuze’s understanding of the “concept,” that is, defining philosophy as an activity that produces concepts, and Peter Eisenman’s idea of the “project” as a platform, “position,” or “theory” of an architect. My intention is to suggest and problematize the idea of the concept as “capacity” or “potentiality” implying the production of a multitude of “concepts” or varying “conceptions.” Deleuze’s great significance for architecture of this century allowed for the construction of the “concept” as “author’s potential,” the source of activity and creative architectural acts. An architectural concept, determined in the course of the text, and thanks to which architectural terminology is redefined, could potentially be quite useful in philosophy and theory of the subject.

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