The Configuration of Space Through Architecture in the Thinking of Gadamer

Although Gadamer stresses the importance of temporality, historicity and tradition, the aim of this contribution is to underline the uniqueness of architecture in Truth and Methods' investigation relative to the essence of a work of art. The uniqueness of architecture for Gadamer lies not only in the fact that it gives space for the expression of all other kinds of artworks; a building has to be to understood as self-sufficient and as autarchic, but also as inscribed in the concrete historical life. A further aspect of the uniqueness of architecture originates in the fact that a building determines our way of life or our dwelling even in a political sense.