FROM AN EXPLANATION TO INTERPRETATION IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNING Teresa Madeira da Silva ISCTE-IUL, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa / DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, Lisboa, Portugal teresa.madeira@iscte.pt Abstract This article assumes that the formal analysis of architectural works (often used in project teaching), with a descriptive character is not suficient for your understanding. The hypotheses depart from the approach of hermeneutic philosophy, assuming that the architectural work is an expression of the human being and therefore subject to interpretation. Unlike the scientiic works that have a literal and univocal sense, the architectural places are prone to multiple interpretations. In this paper, architectural work is beheld from two perspectives: one, from the traditionally used perspective in project teaching, as an object abstractly considered in relation to the context in which it is interpreted and other, with the approach of hermeneutics, as a work resulting from human activity, and produced by someone who is inserted into a particular cultural community and in a particular historical situation. Our conclusion is that the hermeneutic dimension of interpretation thus exceeds explanation techniques of work in order to be situated in a human horizon of sense. We propose that the reading of architectural works should not be limited to the description of a certain reality, but rather give greater intelligibility to explicative schemes that have so far been found and used in project teaching. Keywords hermeneutic; architectural designing; architecture; architectural pedagogy; place. Introdution The discussion about the quality of architectural places is frequently conducted around different aspects, such as the adequacy of the architectural work to the place, to the context, and to the environment. This question is not raised only in physical terms (considering the shape, climate, topography, accesses, views, etc.), but also in aesthetic and symbolic terms. This article assumes that the formal analysis of architectural works (often used in project teaching), with a descriptive character and through its decomposition into parts, outside the context of its interpreter, is not suficient for your understanding. The interpretation of a certain work refers not only to its formal description but also to its signiicance. Since designing a building is thinking it in terms of its form, and also a response to a problem formulated by the order – the project – it presupposes an interpretation and, therefore, the possibility of a variety of possible answers. So, the questions which arise emerge when, while trying to read certain contemporary workings based on traditionally used parameters (their formal analysis), we do not ind appropriate responses to their understanding and interpretation. The 2 3 From an explanation to interpretation - Teresa Madeira da Silva Conference topics Aspects of improving the artist’s “own” awareness of his/her own practice and the knowledge it incorporates; Aspects of insight, understanding and knowing in the work; Discussion of the processes of making the work/design/music in the context of own and other practices; Discovery/deinition of values in the process of designing/ making/doing/performing; Implications of uncovering the aspects considered as tacit; Exploration of the tension between the understanding and emotional experience of the work of art or design; Forms and frames relevant to represent knowledge based on creative practice; Investigation of the relation between the creative work and its description – interpretation – explanation; Inwards and outwards communication in designing/music/arts.