International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development

Vol.1, No.3, Winter 2012

Christian Norberg-Schulz and the Existential Space

1*
Farah Habib; 2Sayyed Mohammad Khosro Sahhaf

1
Ph. D. Associate Professor Department of Art and Architecture, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad
University, Tehran, Iran.
2
Ph. D. Department of Art and Architecture, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

Recieved 20.09.2011; Accepted 18.01.2012

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ABSTRACT: The historian-theoretician Christian Norberg-Schulz, examining the development of his ideas
across 30 years. While Norberg-Schulz started out with Intentions in Architecture (1963), a work that was clearly

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influenced by structuralist studies, he soon shifted to a phenomenological approach with Existence, Space and
Architecture (1971), and then with Genius Loci (1980) and The Concept of Dwelling (1985). He attempted through this
trilogy to lay down the foundations of a phenomenological interpretation of architecture, with an underlying agenda

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that espoused certain directions in contemporary architecture. This article will examine the major writings of Christian
Norberg-Schulz, critically evaluating his interpretation of phenomenology in architecture in its ambiguous relation to
the project of modernity.

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In addition we will introduce his perspectives on the meaning of dwelling as well as the newest concept of dwelling in
the West and its problems

INTRODUCTION
Keywords: Existence, Space, Concept, Dwelling, Place

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v
Phenomenology owes its main thrust to Edmund Husserl and would become influential among a number of architectural

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Martin Heidegger. Husserl launched the phenomenological theorists, namely Christian Norberg-Schulz, who was among
movement in philosophy with the intent of developing it the first to attempt to translate this phenomenological approach
into a method of precise philosophical investigation that in architecture. Christian Norberg-Schulz’s first theoretical

Heidegger who took it into another direction and turned

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it into one of the major philosophical movements of the
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is, a comprehensive new ‘‘science’’, but it was his student work was very much influenced by the structuralist tendencies
of the 1960s, 4 without being specifically anchored to any
single source or reference. Intentions in Architecture appeared

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twentieth century influencing all subsequent developments in in 1963 and constituted an ambitious project to develop an
philosophy from Sartre to Foucault and Derrida. Heidegger overarching ‘‘system’’ that would account for the various poles
transformed Phenomenology into a means for the questioning of architectural activity. The framework for this study included

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of philosophical traditions, a radical dismantling to be a combination of scientific ideas derived from sociology,
followed by a reconstruction, with the intent of founding a psychology and semiotics.
new fundamental ontology that looks at the way in which the
structures of ‘‘Being’’ are revealed through the structures of
human existence.1 Sociology Psychology Semiotics
The main thrust of Heidegger’s philosophy was developed
in his major work, Being and Time (1927), which constitutes
the basis of his phenomenological approach. Yet, as scholars
of Heidegger remark, his later works, especially the series of Schulz's Idea
essays ‘‘The Origin of the Work of Art’’ (1935), ‘‘Building,
Dwelling, Thinking’’ (1952) and ‘‘The Question concerning
Technology’’ (1949),2 reflected a turn in his orientation from
the earlier Being and Time towards a mythopoeic approach that Already at that time, he attributed the condition of ‘‘crisis’’
privileges a direct reflection on the nature of elements, common in architecture to the failure of modern architecture to take
to poetic or artistic practice.3 It was this later Heidegger who account of some of the essential factors that give significance
to the built environment, primary among those the role of
*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected] perception, in addition to the importance of history as a source

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Christian Norberg-Schulz and The Existential Space
Vol.1, No.3, Winter 2012
International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development

of meanings.5 structuralist positions of Piaget, Arnheim and others, and the

Other thinkers in the West note that the crisis has social and phenomenological position represented by Heidegger and
cultural problems for modern man. For example, there is a Bollnow.9 This attempt at reconciling structuralism with
sense of the absurd, such as anxiety or pessimism, and loss of phenomenology may also be traced in his subsequent works
life and enthusiasm to live. Schulz knows that emerging from and never seemed to pose any problems for Norberg-Schulz.
this crisis is possible through training. The major concept in Existence, Space and Architecture is
‘‘space’’. The discussion of ‘‘space’’ was motivated by what
Basic View the author perceived as a reductive reading of that concept,
Norberg-Schulz’s discussion of perception was largely first given currency by Giedion and later used by others,
influenced by Gestalt psychology, to which were also particularly Bruno Zevi.10 Norberg- Schulz qualified space
added the socialization of perception and the process of as ‘‘existential space’’, structured into schemata and centres,
‘‘schematization’’, that is the way in which perception leads directions, paths, and domains; concepts that he illustrated
to the construction of an understanding of the world, based by concrete examples derived from multiple sources, from
on the pioneering studies of Jean Piaget in child psychology. Mircea Eliade to Otto Bollnow, Gaston Bachelard, Claude

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From this, he proceeded to outline a theoretical framework Levi- Strauss and Kevin Lynch. The centre, for instance,
which would include all the semiotic dimensions. This theory, was illustrated by the image drawn from Eliade’s discussion

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influenced to a large extent by Charles Morris’s interpretation on mythology, a mythical origin traversed by a diagram of
of semiotics, constituted a similar attempt to develop a the axis mundi, which represents a connection between the

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comprehensive structure that is, an ‘‘architectural totality’’ different cosmic realms.11 Similarly, the path was related to
that would account for all the dimensions of architecture: the the idea of departure and return home, and the division into
technical structure, environment, context, scale and ornament.6 the ‘‘inner’’ and ‘‘outer’’ domains of existence, as explained
It is worth noting that this work did not list any single reference
to Heidegger in its bibliography, only mentioning him in a
single footnote.7
A few years later, Norberg-Schulz published a work with a
very indicative title, Existence, Space and Architecture(1971),
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by Bollnow. Norberg- Schulz also introduced a new concept
that would be expanded later, that of genius loci, literally the
‘‘spirit of a place’’.12 He identified four levels of ‘‘existential
space’’: geography and landscape, urban level, the house and
the thing. In discussing the house, Norberg-Schulz referred to
followed by Genius Loci(1980) and The Concept of

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Dwelling(1985) which constitute his phenomenological trilogy
in architecture.
e Heidegger’s essay on dwelling and the etymological roots of
‘‘building’’ which go back to ‘‘dwelling’’, stressing the role of
the house as the ‘‘central place of human existence’’:

Existence, Space
and Architecture

h i "The House, therefore, remains the central place of human

existence, the place where the child learns to understand his
being in the world, and the place from which man departs and
to which he returns." 13

Concept of
Dwelling

r c Genius
Loci
House

A
Phenomenological trilogy in architecture

Existence, Space and Architecture marked a turning point in Human Existence

Norberg- Schulz’s theoretical project. While his first work The last chapter discussed the concept of ‘‘architectural space’’
was based on a structuralist approach blending semiotics which he defined as a ‘‘concretization of existential space’’,
and Gestalt theories, this work betrayed a shift which would illustrated by a historical survey of various architectural works,
be translated later into a move towards a phenomenological from villages and towns to specific architectural artifacts,
approach. In the foreword, Norberg-Schulz announced, in subjected to a classification in terms of the spatial concepts of
fact, a ‘‘new approach to the problem of architectural space’’, centre, path and domain, as well as a qualitative description
attempting to ‘‘develop the idea that architectural space may in terms of their phenomenological attributes. Existential
be understood as a concretization of environmental schemata space was thus defined as a qualitative space, manifest in the
or images, which form a necessary part of man’s general monumental architecture of the Parthenon as well as that of the
orientation or ‘being in the world’’.8 This reference to ‘‘being medieval towns, in the dynamic architecture of Borromini as
in the world’’ is indicative of this new shift, supported by well as in that of the Renaissance, in the work of Le Corbusier,
several quotations from Heidegger. Still, in this transitional La Tourette, being a favored example, as well as in Louis
work, Norberg-Schulz stood on a middle ground between the Kahn’s and Paolo Portoghesi’s works.

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Farah Habib; Sayyed Mohammad Khosro Sahhaf

International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development

recognizes, through a sort of spiritual revelation, his presence
in the forest as a fundamental aspect of his existence. Two
illustrations, a Norwegian forest and a farmhouse, accompany
this introduction, further evoking this idea of dwelling as a
return to the sources.19
The Concept of Dwelling was organized into a structured
study that proceeded from the general outline to the
development of the concept, and again from the macro level
of the settlement to that of the individual house, passing by the
intermediary ‘‘modes’’of dwelling, urban space and institution.
Le Corbusier, La Tourette, France 1957-1960 These four basic modes of dwelling are organized through two
‘‘aspects’’: identification and orientation. Mingled in the text
For Norberg-Schulz, there exist multiple variations to the are various quotations from Heidegger, but also from Husserl
concept of ‘‘architectural space’’, but its essential aspects had and Merleau-Ponty,to give a phenomenological flavor to an

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been obliterated by some modern works, especially at the level otherwise structuralist work that revives the same concepts
of urbanism. There, the figural quality of the street and its derived from Gestalt psychology, from Kevin Lynch, in addition

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variations, the centrality of the town square and its existential to references to the work of Mircea Eliade on mythology. In
role have all been ignored by architects, which led to deficient focusing his attention on laying down the foundations of an

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urban environments. In this respect, he joined Venturi, Jacobs, architectural ‘‘language’’, Norberg-Schulz in fact returned to
and Rossi in criticizing Modern Architecture for its short the earlier phase of his Intentions in Architecture, coloured by
comings, especially at the level of the urban environment. As his more recent discovery of phenomenology. In this work,
in the case of Venturi, but using a different approach, Norberg-
Schulz returned to history in its wider sense to give comparative
examples of buildings, towns and landscapes as examples
that naturally incorporate these qualities of ‘‘existential
space’’,creating meaningful and wholistic environments.
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the author re-examined the four categories of dwelling under
the structuralist template of ‘‘morphology’’, ‘‘topology’’ and

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‘‘typology’’, which constituted the organizing structure that
was applied onto the dimension of ‘‘being’’: Man’s being-in-
the-world is structured, and the structure is kept and visualized
Norberg-Schulz reiterated the necessary recognition and

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understanding of the different levels of architectural space that
‘‘form a structured totality which corresponds to the structure
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by means of architecture.20
And further: The meaning of a work of architecture therefore
consists in its gathering the world in a general typical sense,

and Paolo Portoghesi.

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of existential space’’.14 This understanding of ‘‘existential
space’’, ignored by ‘‘orthodox modernism’’ reappeared,
according to him, in the work of Louis Kahn, Robert Venturi
Portoghesi was singled out for his
in a local particular sense, in a temporal historical sense, and,
finally, as something, that is as the figural manifestation of a
mode of dwelling between earth and sky.21
Once again, the selection of ‘‘particular’’ examples of dwelling

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supposed mastery through the application of geometry of the

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interaction between different levels of space, resulting in a
balanced relation between the building and its environment.
Norberg-Schulz concluded with a quote from Heidegger:
at the level of the individual house is quite revealing of the
author’s selective interpretation. The first example mentioned
was the Hill House by Mackintosh, lauded for its fulfillment
of the task of dwelling: to ‘‘reveal the world, not as essence

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‘‘Mortals dwell in as much as they save the earth’’, as a but as presence, that is as material and colour, topography and
confirmation of the necessity of re-appropriating the elements vegetation, seasons, weather and light’’.22
of existential space into the foundation of architecture.15

The Concept of Dwelling

The Concept of Dwelling constituted the third part of Norberg-
Schulz’s phenomenological trilogy, still supported by a
framework of semiotic, behaviorist and other studies.16 In
this work, Norberg-Schulz directly addressed the issue of
‘‘dwelling’’, a concept that was singled out by Heidegger’s
famous essay. Here, surprisingly, the subtitle indicated a
movement towards ‘‘figurative architecture’’.17 In the
foreword, the author announced the basic premise of the book
as the rediscovery of ‘‘dwelling’’ in its comprehensive totality,
leading towards a final overcoming of functionalism and a (Hill House in Helensburgh, Scotland is one of Charles Rennie Mack-
return to figurative architecture.18 The keynote to this work intosh's most famous works, probably second only to Glasgow School
of Art. It was designed and built for the publisher Walter Blackie in
is given by the Norwegian story of Knut, a youngster who 1902 – 1904)

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Christian Norberg-Schulz and The Existential Space
Vol.1, No.3, Winter 2012
International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development

After the Hill House, the author turned to vernacular interpretations of Heidegger’s concept of dwelling.26 Cacciari,
architecture, particularly to the types of dwelling common in clear opposition to Norberg-Schulz, read in Heidegger’s
in northern European countries, which were mentioned by essay a recognition of the ‘‘impossibility of dwelling’’, rather
Heidegger. In addition to these, Gesellius, Lindgren and than a desire for a nostalgic return to pre-modern conditions
Saarinen’s Hvit- tra¨sk complex, Behrens’ house in Darmstadt, of dwelling: No nostalgia, then, in Heidegger but rather the
Hoffmann’s Palais Stoclet and Wright’s prairie houses, which contrary. He radicalizes the discourse supporting any possible
share little in common, were seen as good examples of this ‘‘nostalgic’’ attitude, lays bare its logic, pitilessly emphasizes
interpretation of dwelling. its insurmountable distance from the actual condition.27 The
(Between 1900 and 1917, Wright's residential designs were difficulty of interpreting Heidegger’s later writings has been
"Prairie Houses" (extended low buildings with shallow, sloping raised by some critics. Hilde Heynen, for instance, saw in
roofs, clean sky lines, suppressed chimneys, overhangs and these different interpretations of Heidegger an opposition
terraces, using unfinished materials), so-called because the between two ideological positions, utopian- nostalgic and
design is considered to complement the land around Chicago. critical-radical, represented respectively by Norberg-Schulz
These houses are credited with being the first examples of the and Cacciari. In this opposition, Heynen recognized the

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"open plan.") deficiencies of both positions, the first for its simplistic
reduction of the problematic to a question of architectural

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form, the second for its assimilation of the condition of anxiety
as a generative principle.28 It is precisely this aspect that

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constitutes the weakest point in Norberg-Schulz’s theoretical
proposition: his desire to translate phenomenological discourse
into a tool for the generation of architectural forms that recreate

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a semblance of meaningful environments. In his interpretation
of Heidegger, Norberg-Schulz did not go beyond the surface,
satisfying himself with the later works of Heidegger, without
attempting to answer some of the problematic issues raised by
its critics. Further more, phenomenology, in Norberg-Schulz’s

Lloyd Wright. Designed in 1901)

v e
(The Ward W. Willits House is a building designed by architect Frank
understanding, was continuously supported by a structuralist
framework, which puts into question the very possibility of
overcoming the duality of mind/body as phenomenologist

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Yet this time, the critique of the ‘‘modern house’’ was more
explicit, and the author recognized its failure to arrive at a
satisfactory solution to the problem of dwelling, for it lacked
claim, using this structuralist framework as a pretext for one
of two possibilities: a return to vernacular architecture as an
archetype for an idealized dwelling on the one hand, or
an espousal of a ‘‘figurative’’ post-modernist architecture as a

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the ‘‘figural quality’’; it did not look like a house. Hence, what second option. Even in his last publication, Norberg-Schulz
seems to be the problem is simply the inability of the modern

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did not propose anything beyond a synthesis of these
house to look like a house, and not, as Heidegger had alluded various concepts from structuralism to phenomenology into
to, the inability of modern man to dwell. Norberg-Schulz yet another work that attempts to give a ‘‘comprehensive’’

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expressed here the hope that the revival of this figural quality, account of architecture from all periods and regions.29
as evident in many post-modern projects, will again make Heidegger’s later reflections on art and architecture and the
dwelling possible.23 Despite a cautionary remark against the mythopoeic turn that he took may also be partly responsible
fall into eclecticism, the book ends on an optimistic note that for this particular interpretation of phenomenology, which
this recovery of the figural quality would lead to a recovery of was translated by some as a nostalgic return to an ‘‘authentic
dwelling, in which phenomenology would play a major role dwelling’’ and, consequently, as a retreat to certain styles
as the catalyst for the rediscovery of the poetic dimension in or periods. The later developments in architecture and the
architecture.24 various appropriations of the ‘‘figurative’’ have shown that
the crisis of the object, of which Tafuri had spoken, cannot be
simply resolved by such artificial measures. It is questionable
CONCLUSION whether other phenomenological interpretations would be
Despite its wide dissemination in architectural circles during more successful in resolving the problematic condition of
the 1980s, Norberg-Schulz’s phenomenological interpretation contemporary architecture, without addressing the current
received relatively little critical overview, apart from the usual conditions of its production. A phenomenological approach,
book reviews, most of which were generally positive.25 The in the real sense of the term, cannot be reduced to a formal
strongest attack against this interpretation of phenomenology manipulation of specific parameters such as tactility or
came indirectly fromMassimo Cacciari, who criticized the naıve vision.30 And despite the occasional masterpieces which can

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Farah Habib; Sayyed Mohammad Khosro Sahhaf

International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development

bring forth intense spatial experiences that distinguishes or linguistic nature. See his book review of Intentions in
them from ‘‘ordinary’’ productions, such as the work of Peter Architecture in the Journal of Architectural Education, 21,
Zumthor, it is questionable whether it is possible to raise 3, 1967: 8–10.
architecture as a whole to this level of aesthetic resolution, 8. Christian Norberg-Schulz, Existence, Space and Architecture,
within a practice that continues to separate architecture from NY: Praeger, 1971, p. 7.
its social and political dimensions, which was the historic 9. Otto F. Bollnow, author of Mensch und Raum, 1963 as well
condition for the generation of ‘‘meaningful’’ environments.31 as a number of works on German existential philosophy and
hermeneutics, among others.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 10. Norberg-Schulz, Existence, Space and Architecture, p. 12.
This article was extracted from the author’s PhD thesis, 11. Norberg-Schulz, Existence, Space and Architecture, p. 21.
“Explanation of Spiritual Sphere in Iranian Home” under 12. Norberg-Schulz, Existence, Space and Architecture, p. 27.
supervision of: Dr. Khosro Afzaliyan and Dr. Farah Habib, as 13. Norberg-Schulz, Existence, Space and Architecture, p. 31.
partial fulfillment of the PhD degree in architecture, the Science 14. Norberg-Schulz, Existence, Space and Architecture, p. 96.
and Research branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. 15. Norberg-Schulz, Existence, Space and Architecture, p. 114.

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16. This work did not conclude the series on this topic, as the
REFERENCES author published another work, titled Architecture: Presence,

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1. Dermot Moran, Introduction to Phenomenology, London/ Language and Place, which reiterated the same themes
NY: Routledge, 2000, ch. 6. discussed in the previous books.

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2. Mar tin Heidegger, Being and Time, Harper, 2008; ‘‘The 17. Christian Norberg-Schulz, The Concept of Dwelling: On
Origin of the Work of Art’’ and ‘‘Building Dwelling Thinking’’ the Way to Figurative Architecture, New York: Rizzoli, 1985.
are included in the collection of essays published as Poetry, Again, the original publication came out first in Italian, under
Language, Thought, Harper, 2001; ‘‘The Question Concerning
Technology’’ in The Question Concerning Technology, and
Other Essays, Harper: 1982.
3. Moran, Introduction to Phenomenology, p. 209.
4. Structuralism largely developed out of linguistic studies, the
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Electa, one year prior.
18. In another essay titled ‘‘On the Way to Figurative

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Architecture’’, Norberg-Schulz sheds further light on his
interpretation of the ‘‘figurative’’, using this concept to support
recent post-modernist projects by Venturi, Graves and Botta,
branch of knowledge concerned with the study of language

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itself. Initially, the main source of influence was the Swiss
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who left no work of his own,
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among others. See Christian Norberg-Schulz, ‘‘On the Way
to Figurative Architecture’’, in Norberg-Schulz, Architecture:
Meaning and Place, New York: Electa/ Rizzoli, 1988, pp.233-

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other than the collected notes published by his students
after his death, as the General Course on Linguistics, a work
that was first translated to English in 1959. Saussure initiated a
major change in the study of language, insisting on a synchronic
245.
19. Norberg-Schulz, Concept of Dwelling, pp. 9–12.
20. Norberg-Schulz, Concept of Dwelling, p. 29.
21. Norberg-Schulz, Concept of Dwelling, p. 30.

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approach rather than the usual diachronic approach by looking

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at the structure of the language and its rules of operation. He
also posited that language is a ‘constructed’ system, and not
naturally inherited or metaphysically inspired, thus opening the
22. Norberg-Schulz, Concept of Dwelling, p. 89.
23. Norberg-Schulz, Concept of Dwelling, p. 110. Two
drawings were used to illustrate the ‘‘figural quality’’: the first a
drawing by Louis Kahn, the second by Michael Graves, titled

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way for a deeper probe into the very foundations of this system, ‘‘On the Way to Figurative Architecture’’, pp. 132, 134.
which directly affects the way we construct our reality and the 24. Norberg-Schulz, Concept of Dwelling, p. 135.
world. Although in his collection of notes, the term ‘structure’ 25. See for instance: Harris Forusz, ‘‘Review of Genius Loci’’,
was never used by Saussure, but rather ‘system’, later readers Journal of Architectural Education, 34, 3, 1981: 32; one of
of Saussure came up with this terminology which became the critical reviews of Norberg-Schulz is by Linda Krause,
a standard bearer for other studies, and first among those, ‘‘Review of Architecture: Meaning and Place’’, The Journal of
the work of Claude Levi-Strauss in anthropology. For more the Society of Architectural Historians, 50, 2, 1991: 197–199.
on this see Francois Dosse, Histoire du Structuralisme, Vol. 1, Also, a critical yet cursory discussion of Norberg- Schulz’s
Paris: La Decouverte, 1991; and John Sturrock, Structuralism, concept of dwelling can be found in David Leatherbarrow,
London: Black- well, 2003. Roots of Architectural Invention, Cambridge: Cambridge
5. Christian Norberg-Schulz, Intentions in Architecture, University Press, 1993.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 26. Massimo Cacciari, ‘‘Eupalinos or Architecture’’,
1965, pp. 21–22. Oppositions, 21, 1980: 106–116. This article was written as a
6. Norberg-Schulz, Intentions in Architecture, pp. 101–102. review of Tafuri & Dal Co’s Architettura contemporanea, for
7. Peter Collins wrote a sharp critique of this early work of the journal Oppositions. Architettura contemporanea appeared
Norberg-Schulz, warning against the dangers of assimilating in 1976, and was translatedas Modern Architecture in 1979.
architecture within overwhelming ‘‘the-ories’’ of philosophical Cacciari’s essay in Oppositions coincided with Norberg-

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Christian Norberg-Schulz and The Existential Space
Vol.1, No.3, Winter 2012
International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development

Schulz’s original publication of Genius Loci in Italian. or ‘‘embodied’’ experience of space is advocated for in-
27. Cacciari, ‘‘Eupalinos or Architecture’’, p. 107. stance by Fred Rush in his book On Architecture, New York:
28.Hilde Heynen, Architecture and Modernity, Cambridge, Routledge, 2009.
MA: MIT Press, 1999. 31. Botond Bognar articulated a similar position in his essay
29.Christian Norberg-Schulz, Architecture: Presence, ‘‘Toward an Architecture of Critical Inquiry’’, Journal of
Language, Place, Milan: Skira, 2000. Architectural Education, 43, 1, 1989: 13–34 in which he
30. This appears to be the case for instance of Steven Holl came to the conclusion that the recent phenomenological
who, despite the stimulating experiences that his architecture approaches architecture are legitimate in insisting on a
creates, can not claim to resolve the contradictions born out meaningful dimension, yet they lack the strategies for
of operating within a certain economic mode that determines critically evaluating the given social reality which determines
a priori the conditions for experiencing and using these the realms of intentionality and inter subjectivity (p. 22)
buildings. This reduction of phenomenology to a ‘‘sensory’’

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