The Emergence of Architecture-Transformations: an Examination of Architecture Experiences from the Perspective of the Sociology of Space and Actor-Network-Theor

Abstract

This chapter deals with the problem of how one can do research into and describe the power of architecture that unfurls notably in architectonic experiences. It thus addresses the problem of aesthetics, which has attracted little attention from a sociological point of view (Reckwitz 2008:259–80). Since the same holds true for architectonic experiences (Dangschat 2009), the present chapter takes a fundamental look at the correlations related to the act of experiencing architecture and its effectiveness. The notion of the effectiveness and power of architecture refers foremost to Foucault’s ([1975] 1994) understanding of power, in which he basically distinguishes two modes. He identifies how a specific function of a certain territory leads to in-respective exclusions of certain groups of people (Foucault [1975] 1994:148), and further he underlines how architecture is used as a tool to transform individuals, as he demonstrates in relation to the architecture of prisons (Foucault [1975] 1994:222). In contrast to that of Foucault, who focused less on the observers’ perspectives,¹ my approach implies, in relation to architectonic experiences, that one has to examine the perspective of those who experience architecture in order to indicate how that architecture unfurls its power.