Scholarly record

DESCRIPTIONS OF ARCHITECTURAL SPACE: SAINT-PETERSBURG EMPIRE STYLE

V.A. Serkova, A.S. Safanova, N. A. Sokolova, O. I. Belyaeva

Abstract

The article demonstrates the application of phenomenological description method to describe the architectural space of Saint Petersburg Empire period. The style originating in the French architects designs in the late nineteenth century was fully embodied in St. Petersburg, thus creating the image of a perfect capital. The style involves a particular vision of space, that can be perceived only from a supervisor’s perspective, creating a panoramic view, combining planimetric images with perspective ones, implementing a special cosmological scheme. The method of phenomenological description is the most apt to describe such a complex structure. The relevance of the article is determined by the contemporary technogenic society which naively takes the world for granted, without endowing it with meaning and value. The phenomenological description allows one to show that there are nature, technology in general and architectural space in particular. It also shows what the structure of human life-world is. Our consciousness constantly completes the originally perceived image, unaware of the process. We perform ongoing phenomenological reduction, that is we direct our attention from real objects (like “ St. Petersburg-as-it-actually-is”) to their corresponding images which are formed by consciousness (“the Phenomenon of St. Petersburg”). The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how descriptions clarify meaningful designing of cultural phenomena.

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