The Understanding of Architecture in Hermeneutic Philosophy

Architecture as a skill, and later as a form of fine art, has been included in the field of philosophical research since Antiquity. The purpose of this article is to present the understanding of architecture within the field of hermeneutic philosophy by describing the ideas of three great hermeneutic philosophers: Heidegger, Gadamer and Vattimo, who approach architecture from the ontological and aesthetic point of view. Heidegger interprets architecture as a fundamental trait of existence; Gadamer values it as the artistic form par excellence, with the form surpassed by the contents, too; and Vattimo discusses three possible ways of perceiving architecture in the postmodern society, related to simultaneity, simulacra and the question of ornamentality.