Globalization: The New Mood-Consciousness of Architecture

Change is the transformative vehicle of architecture by way of which architectureis destined to transform and globalize itself. Rather than the traditionalmisconceptions that view architecture as a mere object of use or aestheticbeauty, each city as a bound unit for social cultural interaction, or each countryas an independent unit of political domain, change is the necessary transformativemode that expands our understanding of the world and architecture.Change is what unifies and globalizes the world of architecture in its verycore based on which new understandings of architecture unfold. Change isthe undertone of our architectural discussions that take architecture beyondthe customary utilitarian approaches, beyond the “too-open” modes of deconstructiveagenda, finally to the very depth of all meaning in architecture.Based upon which, architecture opens up possibilities of the contextualizingcharacter of our experiences. This understanding of change and architecturebrings to light the full contextual dimension of our experience that is alwaysinfused with spatial aspects before we can recognize the depth of their significance.Change is the very mode of the emotional understanding of space thatgives each of us our unique understanding of ourselves as well as the globalphenomena of our life by way of architecture.Having let go of the fear of the other, thrownness in today’s world of globalinteraction, lost the traditional definitions of time and space, this paperfinds the new definitions of architecture in the existential mode of thatwhich Martin Heidegger characterizes as the mood of a state where yourattunement and understanding merge in completeness of being a whole.Peter Zumthor’s Therme Vals ‘works’ as an exemplary work of architecture:that clears the way of our preconceptions and opens the way for what we cannow understand as such Mood-Consciousness of architecture. Rather thanblocking the way, closing, and separating, this new Mood-Consciousness ofarchitecture serves to globalize our mood by unifying diverse architecturalattitudes, yet fully empowering each discussion on their own.

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1