Architecture as the Art of Protecting the Innermost

DOI

10.2991/icassee-18.2018.77How to use a DOI?

Keywords

architecture; art; space; mass; space; chaos; image; external; internal; profane; sacred

Abstract

Architecture embodies the primal syncretic art of the living space arrangement. The beginnings of many more particular types of artistic activities can be found in this art. People, getting more and more self-confident and carried away by the bright and diverse fruits of their work, start to forget the fundamental meaning and purpose of the "mother of arts" - architecture, turning it into a "service", and not spiritual but technical and utilitarian one. This report aims to clarify the fundamental protective function of architectural and construction activities. It will be a question of reproduction of the act of the creation of space among chaos, in other words, of the enclosure of the space suitable for living, and its physical and speculative sheltering from "external darkness". From this point of view, the interior is the dominant element of an architectural work, and the exterior is a secondary, service and defensive one. Brutal fortifications and blind walls of the castle like houses are the clear evidence of that. Expressive architectural decoration owes its origin also to the tasks of protecting the inner chambers from the penetration of external evil forces. Frightening appearance of buildings served as reliable magic protection for their inhabitants. At the same time, architectural splendor had a meaning as a means of expressing the imperturbable greatness of a powerful God or a divine ruler. In any case, professional means of organizing architectural masses were aimed at protecting and presenting the spaces enclosed in these masses. Architecture, thus, played a role of both symbolic, and quite real apotrope for the sacred hearth of true life hidden inside. Awareness of this fact should help, at least partly, to return to contemporary architecture the status of a great life-building art.

Copyright

© 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Igor Bondarenko
PY  - 2018/12
DA  - 2018/12
TI  - Architecture as the Art of Protecting the Innermost
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Art Studies: Science, Experience, Education (ICASSEE 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 378
EP  - 382
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icassee-18.2018.77
DO  - 10.2991/icassee-18.2018.77
ID  - Bondarenko2018/12
ER  -