Introduction - Festival experience and architectural experience

Architecture and Cultural Continuity explores a new way of viewing architecture – arguing that all architecture is best evaluated through active experiences in relation to cultural traditions of community and belonging, space, ritual, and setting. A work in three parts, the book first analyses in-depth the Festival of San Giovanni in Florence, an annual series of celebrations involving the entire city. Tracing its history from its Roman origins via the Renaissance through to contemporary times, this case study is used to explore ideas of continuity and tradition and how these shape and are shaped by architecture and the city. Part 2 gathers theoretical tools from philosophy, anthropology, and performance studies to offer a new framework for the appraisal of architecture – whether engaged in festival or simply part of the background to everyday life – as experience rather than form. The final part presents historic and contemporary case studies to explain the theory in practice, from the Blue Mosque in Istanbul to Tadao Ando’s Church of Light in Japan, and from Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library to Snøhetta’s Bibliotheca Alexandria. Written for architectural theorists, historians, and designers alike, this book will allow the reader to assess architecture in a new way that re-addresses aspects of history often obscured by post-enlightenment thinking, an architecture rooted in cultural traditions and better able to contribute to the diverse communities of the future.