Transdisciplinarity and theory of architecture

This study investigates the discursive turbulence in the theory of architecture against a background of main philosophical debates in the recent decades. Following methodological considerations based on epistemology and hermeneutics, and after introducing the discourse of transdisciplinarity with its manifestoes, debates and criticism, a larger philosophical background is carefully taken into consideration at two meta-levels: “radical thought” and “weak thought”. At this discursive altitude, the main chapter proposes a mediation between the traditional conflicts in the theory of architecture: subject vs. object, tradition vs. modernity, avant-garde vs. arierre-garde, semantic vs. syntactic, global vs. local, seduction vs. resistance, surface vs. structure, concept vs. senses, rationality vs. irrationality, and reality vs. virtuality. Finally, three examples of architectural transdisciplinarity offer suggestions for renewed principles in architectural education, articulating broader horizons for understanding, conciliation between different beliefs, creative tension, integration between form and content and a model of knowledge without centre.