Mariam Y. AL'Saigh - In the 70th Christian Norberg-Schulz provided a “new” approach to architectural theory, proposing a notion of space which places man and his social interaction at the center of the special experience in philosophical explanation.

He argues that the architectural space needs to take in account man and his emotions and should not be reduced to a geometric concept of space nor to a subjective perception. The author proposes the idea that architectural space can be understood as a concretization of man's environmental images through posing the key question that must concern all mankind: «What must we demand from architectural space in order than man may still remain human?». Through this work, Norberg-Schulz distinguishes seven levels of which he is primary concerned with «existential space» which forms man's image of the environment, providing some spatial definitions with this concern.

Space is one of the primary aspects of man's culture. Increasingly it became a basic to any architectural discussion weather in the theoretical concern or in the domain of practical architectural design. In fact the importance of space in architecture has not longer being acknowledged specially by art historians and critics. The concern with space aroses mainly among German writers at the end of Nineteenth and the beginning of Twentieth Century not only in architecture but in relation with other arts. In general the discussion of the problem of the architectural theory of space was more oriented as «studies in architectural conception or as tri-dimensional geometry».

In Existence, Space and Architecture Norberg-Schulz refers to such discussions of the space notion which he regards it as existential dimension or human environment, that in both cases it is dominated by naïve realism. He refers for instance to the works of Sigfried Giedion who has a wide contribution of the space conception, that weather he approached the conception of existential space but it still too naïvely realistic. The concern of such kind of study of human environment which related to the perception of form and space basically came from the new science of experimental psychology which also has been developed in the second half of Nineteenth Century stressed the important of the tactile senses in the perception of space. Norberg-Schulz was inspired by those previous studies in this concern when the problem of “human” space has been widely studied by psychologists for about hundred years like the art historian Dagober Frey and the philosophical phenomenologist Otto Friedrich Bollnow. In Existence, Space and Architecture the author intends to provide a different kind of understanding to the problem of the architectural space. In fact this intention was preceded by his earlier work Intention in Architecture in 1963. Both of his works had been thought about experiential and psychic notion such as «existential foothold» and «existential space». It might be assumed that his argument concerning this psychological field of space hasn’t been completed till 1979 in his Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture when he started to use the notion «genius loci» or «spirit of place» and related it to the dwelling concept therefore dwelling implies something more than “shelter”, it implies that space where life occurs is “place”.

«All cultures have developed system of orientation,… spatial structures which facilitate the development of a good environmental image». Obviously from the first reading pages that the work's intention forwards on a relation between two existed facts which are man and his environment. Norberg-Schulz tries to distinguish the notion of space in architecture in a specific point of view. In fact the author's viewpoint contributes particularly to the understanding of one of the most problematic architectural theories or the problem of architectural space. He refers to the word space as it is one of the aspects of existence. Thus the “existential space” concept here reflexes an attempt to skip away from other theoretical studies of space in architecture which the author classified them in two ways: «those which are based on Euclidean space and study its grammar and those which try to develop a theory of space on the basis of perception psychology». As Norberg-Schulz's understanding of space was to relate it with the “existence”, he neglects in his argument any sequence of time or space development of any architectural movement thus terms like Modern Movement, Post-Modern Movement or Classical Architecture are not found. While he presents it through analyzing the space notions in levels like, geography, landscape, the urban level and the house with their interactions. Therefore the argument of the «existential space» has been presented as psychological concept. He explains why it should be studied and presented in this way as this notion cannot be understood as man's need alone but also as his interaction with environment and in order to reach such kind of understanding, the required knowledge should be based on a social science (psychologist, sociologist and anthropologist) and philosophy. Norberg-Schulz poses his concept of «existential space» basing it on Jean Piaget's studies of a child's concept of space «ontogenetically aspects of space conception» and in its socio-cultural aspects «Phil genetic problem of space conception». The discussion concerned the contributions of some architectural theories and essays of space focusing on those theories who aimed to understand the space as a dimension of human existence starting with a general thinking about the space to outline the basic concept then he moves to architecture trying to give conceptual definitions or notes to some architectural terms like: “center” initially the self, “place” surrounds the center, “direction” above, below, front, back, left, cardinal point, axes, “path” movement to a place or toward a goal, continuity, linearity, directionality. One of his most contributions in this concern is the describing and understanding the architectural space as concretized space. The author was also accurate and successful of selecting the photos from the architectural examples. He also focused on the works of some architects like Paolo Portoghesi, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. In fact the selected examples have been viewed to support the author's notion rather than to focus on the examples themselves. Although they haven’t been explained and illustrated but they were enough expressible of why they have been selected for. Obviously those examples are basically exclusive on Europe. It might be assumed that Existence, Space and Architecture is a long-term proponent of a phenomenological architecture based on philosophy and psychology of space and Europe cultural history of space conception.

NOTE ON THE AUTHOR
Christian Norberg-Schulz (Oslo 1926-2000) was a Norwegian architect, architectural historian and theorist.

Though Norberg-Schulz had practiced as an architect in his home country, he is well-known internationally both for his books on architectural history (in particular Italian classical architecture, especially the Baroque) and for his writings on theory. His concerns for theory can be characterized by a subtle shift from the analytical and psychological concerns of his earlier writings to the issue of phenomenology of place, being one of the first architectural theorists to bring the thinking of Martin Heidegger to the field.

NORBERG-SCHULZ, Christian, Intentions in Architecture, MIT Press, Cambridge 1965.

NORBERG-SCHULZ, Christian, Meaning in Western Architecture, Rizzoli, New York 1974.

NORBERG-SCHULZ, Christian, Architettura Barocca, Electa, Milano 1979.

NORBERG-SCHULZ, Christian, L' Abitare: l'insediamento, lo spazio urbano, la casa, Electa, Milano 1984.

NORBERG-SCHULZ, Christian, Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, Rizzoli, New York 1980.

NORBERG-SCHULZ, Christian, New World Architecture, Princeton Architectural Press, New York 1988.

NORBERG-SCHULZ, Christian, Architettura: presenza, linguaggio e luogo, Skira, Milano 2000.