Architecture, Phenomenology and Power: A Problematic Synthesis

This chapter tries to contribute to the discussion on the relationship between power, the phenomenological element of architecture and architecture through an inquiry into a specific genealogy of the architectural theory and history of the last 150 years. It draws attention to the problematic nature of the monothematic view on architectural and urban artefacts (for example, the exclusivity of the relation between power and architecture) and discusses certain elements with which we can build our comprehension of the quality of form. To illustrate the shift from theoretical discussions to an analysis of a specific artefact, it selects a concrete example – the monument 26 Frozen Partisans, a memorial on Matić poljana (1966–1969) by Plečnik student Zdenko Sila, a potential epithet of the representation of power at the time but also one of the most subtle landscape interventions in Yugoslav memorial tradition.