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Nietzsche’s Conception of Place: Blueprint for an Architecture of the Future

Received: 12 April 2022     Accepted: 27 April 2022     Published: 10 May 2022
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Abstract

In today’s ‘Hypermodern’ world, where space-time compression and digital technological innovations are the dominant modes of existence, Nietzsche’s ideas can still offer alternative perspectives and ways of life. One of the main issues that spatial design disciplines have to face within hypermodernity is the growing deterritorialization of events and human inter-actions, the insurmountable distancing between bodies in space. Digital technology creates ‘spaces of flows’ that transcend communities, regions, places, localities and persons, inaugurating an exponential dematerialization of social and human relations. Although there are strong indications that Nietzsche’s nomadic way of life and thinking would perhaps endorse the digital turn, I would like to argue in the present paper that if we read his textual corpus closely, attentively and slowly, a new possibility emerges: the great value of embodied thinking. My basic working hypothesis is that thinking through the body needs proximity: real Places of the Outside, whether natural or urban, in order to unfold itself. Nietzsche can be used against digitalization and hypermodern ‘non-places’. More specifically, it seems that an important topic has been relatively neglected so far within the vast secondary literature of Nietzsche Studies: his concept, idea or notion of place. This paper aims to offer an introductory analysis of Nietzsche’s conception of place, as elaborated mainly in Ecce Homo. I will try to show the close relationship between place and inspiration, Stimmung and the body, arguing in favor of a new philosophy of locality. I will then suggest that this new idea of place has potentially very interesting consequences, and could open up new, radical questions for contemporary and future architectural theory and practice.

Published in International Journal of Architecture, Arts and Applications (Volume 8, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijaaa.20220802.12
Page(s) 49-63
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Affekt, Attunement, Geophilosophy, Inspiration, Leib, Ort, Rhythm of Metabolism, Stimmung

References
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    Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou. (2022). Nietzsche’s Conception of Place: Blueprint for an Architecture of the Future. International Journal of Architecture, Arts and Applications, 8(2), 49-63. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijaaa.20220802.12

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    Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou. Nietzsche’s Conception of Place: Blueprint for an Architecture of the Future. Int. J. Archit. Arts Appl. 2022, 8(2), 49-63. doi: 10.11648/j.ijaaa.20220802.12

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    Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou. Nietzsche’s Conception of Place: Blueprint for an Architecture of the Future. Int J Archit Arts Appl. 2022;8(2):49-63. doi: 10.11648/j.ijaaa.20220802.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijaaa.20220802.12,
      author = {Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou},
      title = {Nietzsche’s Conception of Place: Blueprint for an Architecture of the Future},
      journal = {International Journal of Architecture, Arts and Applications},
      volume = {8},
      number = {2},
      pages = {49-63},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijaaa.20220802.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijaaa.20220802.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijaaa.20220802.12},
      abstract = {In today’s ‘Hypermodern’ world, where space-time compression and digital technological innovations are the dominant modes of existence, Nietzsche’s ideas can still offer alternative perspectives and ways of life. One of the main issues that spatial design disciplines have to face within hypermodernity is the growing deterritorialization of events and human inter-actions, the insurmountable distancing between bodies in space. Digital technology creates ‘spaces of flows’ that transcend communities, regions, places, localities and persons, inaugurating an exponential dematerialization of social and human relations. Although there are strong indications that Nietzsche’s nomadic way of life and thinking would perhaps endorse the digital turn, I would like to argue in the present paper that if we read his textual corpus closely, attentively and slowly, a new possibility emerges: the great value of embodied thinking. My basic working hypothesis is that thinking through the body needs proximity: real Places of the Outside, whether natural or urban, in order to unfold itself. Nietzsche can be used against digitalization and hypermodern ‘non-places’. More specifically, it seems that an important topic has been relatively neglected so far within the vast secondary literature of Nietzsche Studies: his concept, idea or notion of place. This paper aims to offer an introductory analysis of Nietzsche’s conception of place, as elaborated mainly in Ecce Homo. I will try to show the close relationship between place and inspiration, Stimmung and the body, arguing in favor of a new philosophy of locality. I will then suggest that this new idea of place has potentially very interesting consequences, and could open up new, radical questions for contemporary and future architectural theory and practice.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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    AB  - In today’s ‘Hypermodern’ world, where space-time compression and digital technological innovations are the dominant modes of existence, Nietzsche’s ideas can still offer alternative perspectives and ways of life. One of the main issues that spatial design disciplines have to face within hypermodernity is the growing deterritorialization of events and human inter-actions, the insurmountable distancing between bodies in space. Digital technology creates ‘spaces of flows’ that transcend communities, regions, places, localities and persons, inaugurating an exponential dematerialization of social and human relations. Although there are strong indications that Nietzsche’s nomadic way of life and thinking would perhaps endorse the digital turn, I would like to argue in the present paper that if we read his textual corpus closely, attentively and slowly, a new possibility emerges: the great value of embodied thinking. My basic working hypothesis is that thinking through the body needs proximity: real Places of the Outside, whether natural or urban, in order to unfold itself. Nietzsche can be used against digitalization and hypermodern ‘non-places’. More specifically, it seems that an important topic has been relatively neglected so far within the vast secondary literature of Nietzsche Studies: his concept, idea or notion of place. This paper aims to offer an introductory analysis of Nietzsche’s conception of place, as elaborated mainly in Ecce Homo. I will try to show the close relationship between place and inspiration, Stimmung and the body, arguing in favor of a new philosophy of locality. I will then suggest that this new idea of place has potentially very interesting consequences, and could open up new, radical questions for contemporary and future architectural theory and practice.
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Author Information
  • School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A.), Athens, Greece

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