A Survey on the Method, Procedures and Consequences of Understanding Architectural Works

Considering the significance of understanding architectural works in terms of history, theory and architectural criticism, a great deal of researches have been dealing with the study of architectural works and expressing one’s understanding of that work. Although the study of issues such as “perceiving an architectural work” and seeking for the “standards and steps for understanding an architectural work” begins with analysis of the building, the fundamentals of these issues are deeply rooted in the theoretical bases of Architecture and so they inevitably belong to the realm of theory. In other words, the issue of “Understanding an Architectural Work at the time of perception”, on one hand is related to direct study of the work ()building)(itself, and on the other hand, it is linked with the richness of architectural thoughts that form the sources for quality and quantity of creating desirable places in the real world. Therefore, the knowledge on the aspects of “understanding an architectural work” and possessing “the principles and standards” for coming to an understanding of the architectural work plays a significant role in validity of quality of the visitor’s understanding of the architectural work, and lack of the principles and standards in coming to an understanding of the architectural work will cause the taste of an individual to influence the understanding and it will lead to the invalidity of the understanding of the visitor. But, how an architectural work is understood and what are its dimensions and aspects? This is the main question of this article and it deals with understanding the architectural work and its achievements. In response to this question, this article mainly deals with the steps of perception a work, i.e. “the building”, the approaches to realization, and theoretical bases of the issues proposed with regard to the problem of understanding an architectural work and its achievements in the field of architecture. The study of the modern paradigms on “understanding the architectural work” reveals that a major part of the discussions raised on this matter are rooted in philosophy, philosophy of art and linguistics and they have focused on understanding the literary works and the art works and then, they have been introduced into the field of architecture after a short delay. Hence, it is inevitable to step into the field of philosophy and philosophy of art from an epistemological aspect, while studying the issue of “understanding the architectural work”. So, this article starts with a review of the approaches to realization of a work in contemporary theories and paradigms, and later it will deals with the steps in understanding a work in the field of architecture. Then, the established standards for understanding a work and understanding an architectural work will be analyzed. Therefore, it will be possible to determine to what level of understanding the scholar will come through any one of these approaches. So, this article offers the different steps of visiting and understanding architectural works and their achievements, the significance of speaking with “the architectural work” in understanding it, the reason behind the necessity for questions and answers in perceiving the work and stepping beyond the structure of that work and pondering on the nature of the architectural work.