Aesthetics Report by: SR De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design & Arts Architecture Program 3rd Term S.Y. 2016-17 June 2017

1. Western Aesthetics in the realm
of Kantian Philosophy

2. Quick Rundown
May 8th – 11 Questions (PLATE # 4 soon)
May 15 – 5 Metaphysical Projects of Western Architecture
May 22 – PLATE # 1 (A Question of Aggragation)
May 29 – Architectural Determinism
June 5 – Kantian Philosophy (British Aesthetics)
- PLATE # 2 (Concept vs. Experience)

3. Immanuel Kant (Kantianism)

4. Kantianism’s basic principles
• Causality
• Deontological ethics
• “Ultimate Good”
• Categorical Imperative

5. Causality
• Cause and effect

6. Deontological Ethics
• Every actions came from a principle.
• Morality of an action was based on rules.

7. Ultimate good
• Kant’s belief that all people are fundamentally
rational beings
• Based on motive of duty – we shouldn't act
out of compassion
• Morality is prescriptive – ‘ought’ implies ‘can’
“The only good thing is the good will” – I.Kant

8. Categorical Imperative
• Kant argues that categorical imperative is the
only way to act.
• To act for the sake of duty only.
(For example, one should help an old lady to cross the road
simply because it is a good thing to do, not because it will make
you feel good.)

9. Act only according to that maxim whereby you
can, at the same time, will that it should become
a universal law.

10. A categorical imperative is a
command which is absolute and
unconditional; it must be obeyed
for its own sake.

12. Influence of Kant to British Aesthetics?

13. Kant’s influence to architecture
Kant is responsible for the notion that architecture
should express ideas, and also for competing views on
what ideas it should express (Guyer, 2011).
SOURCE: Paul Guyer

14. Architects tend to steer well clear
of philosophy. And well they might;
• It’s difficult to get your head around it.
• It’s not sexy.
• When you think of Philosophy, you don’t think
Money or Art.
• It’s too much trouble.
– Why care about philosophy when entire architectural
movements can be built on one or two
misappropriations from literature or the World of Art?
– Why even go that far when you can have a healthy
cashflow on the basis of statements no more
profound than “I like curves”?
SOURCE: misfits architecture

15. PLURALISM
• Tolerant but indifferent.

16. What makes this situation even more
unfortunate is that, in the great chain of content
provision, we can’t trust the media or architects
to give us coherent, or even honest reasons why
buildings are the way they are.

17. We’re on our own, mostly in the dark, and need
an autonomous basis for judging good vs. bad,
truth vs. lies and fact vs. hype.

18. Misfits architecture

19. Existentialist Architecture
Three of Existentialism‘s central ideas are all we
need;
1. Existence is more important than Essence
2. Facticity
3. Authenticity
Søren Kierkegaard is considered to have been
the first existentialist philosopher.

20. Existentialist Architecture
Three of Existentialism‘s central ideas are all we
need;
1. Existence is more important than Essence
2. Facticity
3. Authenticity
Søren Kierkegaard is considered to have been
the first existentialist philosopher.

21. Existence is more important
than Essence
• A building should be what it is rather than
how it might appear to others.
• This denounces architectural pretensions of all
sorts. It may even denounce all of what’s
commonly thought of as architecture.

22. This denounces all buildings whose appearance
contradicts their internal configuration,
Quinlan Terry Bldg

23. Some Gehry’s work
all buildings whose structure is not what it appears,

24. Security Marine Bank
all buildings that present an idealised image to the world,

25. all yet-to-be-built buildings with images at odds with reality, and

26. Zaha Hadid’s Bee’Ah HQ, UAE
all yet-to-be-built buildings with images at odds with reality, and

27. all buildings that first enter our consciousness as vehicles for publicity
Zaha Hadid’s Bee’Ah HQ, UAE

28. Afterword by misfits
One innovation here is applying the same
requirement of existence over essence to images of
buildings yet to be built.
This should hopefully check the current imbalance
between the design of a building (existence) and
the marketing of a building and/or its designers
(essence).

29. PLATE # 2
• Decide what “tools” you’re gonna use (Concept
or Pheno | Top Down or Bottom Up)
• Concept = diagram iso
• Pheno = perspective or plan
• Complete the drawing in detail
• Explain the result (SM Mall in the year 2027, or
2037, or 2047)
• We’ll use Kantian or Kierkegaard's principles as
parameters of evaluation.