Belgrade : University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture
Abstract
Starting from understanding the architectural space as one of many modes of continual urban
space, the research focuses on the interpretation of concepts developed in order to describe the
properties of the so-called cognitive architecture. In the last decade, guided by the issue of social
effects of architecture, many investigations in the field of theory of architecture were conducted
within the framework constituted from the philosophical elaborations of the notion of affect,
mainly by Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari and Brian Massumi. In some proposals, the concept of
cognitive architecture was established to describe the impact that the space occupied with new
information and communication technologies exerts on the domains of intellect and mental
disposition, coupled with the practices of every-day life. Cognitive architecture emerges as a
consequence of the intertwinings of physical and mental processes in individuals’ bodies, as well
as between them, that characterize social space in contemporary communication-information
age. The concept of cognitive architecture thus emphasizes the ways in which technologies of
communication shape the mental sphere of humans and its relation to material processes in
humans’ bodies. Paralleling this phenomenon, in the field of architectural design, the architect
Philippe Rahm has developed a practice based on investigations into the morphogenetic potential
of material flows in space. The flows in question comprise a series of chemical, physical and
biological transformations through which non-living materials and human mind and body become
directly connected. Comparing and intersecting theoretical interpretations of cognitive
architecture with Rahm’s design strategies, we shall offer a set of notions that trace new forms of
unity between mind, body and architectural space, as a contribution to the exploration of the
concept of bodily-mental-social continuum