Is it possible to understand" beautiful"?
Aesthetic-hermeneutic readings from a pragmatic perspective

Module 25405 | SoSe 2025
DI 13:45 -17 h | LG 2A, SR 0.03
Start: 14 April 2025
Prof. Dr. Albert Kirchengast

It is not only since yesterday that aesthetics have had a hard time in everyday life and have fallen into disrepute. "There's no arguing about taste" is a phrase that often crops up in relevant discussions - and is often wrong. But its mostly reflexive, dismissive use probably expresses more than a misunderstanding of the subjective validity of "aesthetic questions" - perhaps one "feels" that it is about that meaningful "whole" that one would rather not expose oneself to (right now)?

Since the middle of the 18th century, philosophical aesthetics has been dealing with its own, different "language" to that of clear and distinct concepts; indeed, it does not obey the sovereign claim of the intellect. Therein lies its essential point: that the world appears aesthetically different to us. In doing so, it is not solely dependent on works of art, because aesthetics, unlike art theories, primarily examines the structure and validity of this mode of experience. Since the Enlightenment, aesthetics has thus occupied an irreplaceable and untranslatable position in people's sense of meaning and orientation, where the reason for life is in danger of being lost in a "rationalistic" society, behaviour and way of life. So what does "aesthetic experience" mean and how does it relate to questions of hermeneutics and phenomenology? And how does the artwork Architecture present itself from this perspective?

The seminar focuses on this interface between the incommensurability of aesthetic experience and its connection to judgement, action - to design - in short: the interplay of reception and production. The focus is on an understanding of the aesthetic re-evaluation of "sensuality" gained through joint reading and discussion, as well as on the connection between aesthetics and phenomenological hermeneutics. The aesthetic experience has always called for sharing in order to be a (critical) part of our cultural community. Although we do not start from the work of art in this seminar, we ask again and again: If a kind of promise of meaning is inherent in the aesthetic experience in modernity, how can this - without style and symbol - be realised architecturally?

Building Thoughts IV: The Image of Guben/Gubin

Integration Module Theory | 13630, 13776, 14167 | SoSe 2025
DI 09:30-12:30 | LG 2C, SR 317
Start: 15 April 2025
Victoria Loyall, Prof. Dr. Albert Kirchengast

This semester, the city of Guben/Gubin on the German-Polish border will be the site of the design tasks of the Design and Building Theory chair - and thus the subject of the associated integration module.
The aim is to get to the bottom of the city's character: The aim is to understand the heterogeneous, specific and perhaps also vulnerable nature of this border town and to contribute to its strengthening with a considered intervention.

The title "The Image of Guben/Gubin" refers to the book "The Image of the City" by architect and Urban Planning expert Kevin Lynch. He developed methods to encounter cities individually, to form an "image" of them. Using the physical characteristics of the built environment as "unchangeable variables", he recognises the character of a city as "readable" and understandable. With the help of Lynch, Christopher Alexander or the Situationists, we develop an architectural urethnographic approach to understand Guben/Gubin more deeply than just in terms of architectural structures.

On the basis of this understanding, the students will develop a minimal intervention in the city. Over the course of the semester, they will successively work on their idea, build it as a model and discuss its intention and effect with their fellow students. A triad of model building, model image and text (analytical and descriptive) is intended to illustrate the essential ideational nature of their own building and help them to directly examine and discuss spatial effects.

Building Ideas IV: Other Places

Integration Module Theory | 13630 | SoSe 2025
MI 09:30-12:30 | LG 2A, SR 0.25.1
Start: 16 April 2025
Jonathan Metzner, Prof. Dr. Albert Kirchengast

Against the backdrop of globalisation and the individualisation of late capitalist societies, older forms of social integration have long since begun to falter. Political debates about civil society and the supposed loss of a sense of community have raised the question of whether and how social integration can succeed in pluralised societies and what role solidarity plays in this.

In the past, "people's churches", with local congregations, provided opportunities for encounters and social exchange. In the course of social transformation and structural change in the church, the question nowadays is how to deal with increasingly empty places of worship and whether these places can make a contribution to the social aspects of our society as "other spaces". What artistic qualities do these spaces possess that defy capitalist influences? And how can these atmospheres be utilised for new social functions?

The seminar accompanies the "Design - Construction Building in Existing Contexts" design studio as an integration module. The guiding building concept for the design of a contemporary meeting space is honed by means of discussion rounds and individual modelling exercises. The triad of model-model-image-text (analytical/descriptive) illustrates the essential-ideal nature of an individual design and frees it from the limitations of real practice. Textual impulses from architectural history and theory, from cultural studies and the humanities accompany the seminar.