Architecture and the Making of Space

Designed space. La Tourette (Le Corbusier), France. Photo U. Gehmann

‘Architecture is the thoughtful making of space’ (Louis Kahn). It refers to architecture as an art, on the one hand; on the other, to the manifold relations that exist between architecture, society, and politics. To make spaces thoughtful depends on the thoughts that are applied, in the respective concrete case. It depends on worldviews, political goals, societal culture, and many other things. It can be condensed into one central question: which kinds of architecture for which kinds of people? This also depends on goals to be achieved, that is, in the end, on certain ideals that have to be pursued, in a given socioeconomic and political context. What kind of society shall be achieved, based on which conceptions, programs, and ideologies? In the face of recent political developments, it is not only a question of the physical built space, but also of the architectures of social organization — how the social space shall be organized, how it shall look like?