Abstract:
The study proposes an approach to (architectural) history
derived from an understanding of Thomas Kuhn's term 'paradigm'.
A paradigm is defined as a shared temporal intellectual
model which directs and limits the normal activities of
a community and after a crisis period can undergo change
thereby giving rise to a new paradigm.
A paradigmatic approach involves the identification of
episodes of crisis, the identification and interpretation of
the unique artefacts (criteria are given to which these
should comply), and the synergising of understanding to a
representative paradigm which provides a context for the
historical period and whereby further facts and artefacts can
be investigated.
Postmodernism is taken as a testing case. It is characterised
as the period of change, and the crisis period of the
Modern revealed. .The associated contemporaneous artefacts
are identified from the fields of architecture, painting,
literature and music, and interpreted. A meaning is given to
the whole Modern period through articulating the dimensions
of reality of the discipline of architecture within the Newtonian
paradigm.
