If Immanuel Kant in his “Critique of Pure Reason” was right, architects are then “mentalists” in the truest sense of the word. Kant’s understanding of “space” is that it exists in the mind, placed there as a useful “map” before we have our first perception. It is not a concept which we perceive once we first open our eyes, but rather a feature of our mind which exists a priori and which is required before perceiving anything at all.
Since architecture form space, it then interestingly follows that they are also forming the mind. In fact, mind is their medium. They use the power of the mind to influence other minds; thus, “mentalists”.
I also wonder, if one were able to remove these “space spectacles”, i.e. our innate mental map of space, how would architecture appear? In the “noumenal” world, would the order, reason and complexity that characterizes architecture appear similar to that of the order, reason and complexity of nature? Would we be able to tell them apart? Would an extraterrestrial being or entity experiencing a different “phenomenal” world tell them apart? Would some believe the architecture built by man was the creation of “God”, as we often say about nature?
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