CARTESIANISM : OBJECTIVE DOMESTICITY
Manoj Parmar I Director
KRMLS 2012 | KRVIA MUMBAI
HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE
The French philosopher, Rene’ Descartes contributed to the doctrine and principal of historical objectivity compounding to the theoretical foundation of ”Cartesianism” through his treatise, ‘’Discourse on Method.” It began to emphasize historicity in the light of conceptual objectivity. The relationship of mind and corporeal sensuality is subjected to the objective rationalism of forces that shape production (object). The objective historicism brings about substantialism of matter by dividing existence into mind, matter and nature.
Along with Descartes, Montesquieu through his treatise, “The Spirit of Laws” discarded the theological interpretation of exitsence and paved the way for the scientific history of human culture. In spite of the intimate connection between nature and culture, reason determines the nature of responses.
The ‘’Discourse on Method” and “The Spirit of Laws” began to revive the renaissance significance of anthropocentric space along with essential qualitites of a critical spirit, objectivity and secularization of thought that has pervaded into the contemporary thought pattern of objectivity for the architectural paradigm.
Houses have always remained as theoretical excursion mediums to set new cannons for contemporary practice in Architecture. The re-invention of the house as a “Machine for Living” became the metaphoric object of Modern life.
The minimum form and maximum function set a new alignment to the aesthetic of house form. The rationality and vitality of program remained a constant victim for seeking a new language of architecture, per se. Architecture of houses always dealt with the duality of transfer of forms regard/ disregard for the program. The harder the contrast, the more it sets the challenge to contemporary living.
The House as a simple appliance was an operative metaphor which sets a new experiment in methodical cartesianism of architectural thought in attempting to locate the aesthetic (space) of houses. Houses have always remained products of systematic theoretical and rational research in the formal field of architecture.
Such research into the nature of objects leads to resultant forms, that determine the modern method of production and construction. The formal handling of volumes nevertheless convincingly demonstrates the aesthetic presence in architecture of houses while locating the parallel drawn from reading of “Discourse on Method”
