Kenosis Creativity Architecture

Theology and philosophy establish that kenosis, or self-emptying, reveals the ontology of creativity. But, until now, architecture ‚Äö- a primal expression of human creativity ‚Äö- has not been correlated with kenosis, nor has either been thought of as informing or taking the measure of the other. This dissertation moves toward rectifying that lack. It opens-up interdisciplinary thinking about kenosis to reveal the subject's manifold foundations: its locus classicus in Christian scriptures, its antecedents in antiquity, its medieval and modern development, and its emergence in most major faith traditions. Such foundations enable a further opening-up of kenotic thought ‚Äö- for the first time, through architecture. Accordingly, the situations of eight, widely recognised architectural projects are re-examined, this time focusing on their kenotic claims and the kenosis they manifest. Located in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia ‚Äö- where several are affected by the kenotic dimensions of various world religions ‚Äö- these projects include works by Louis Kahn, I.M. Pei, Tadao Ando, Daniel Libeskind, and Peter Eisenman. Though newly revealing, this examination often mirrors the kenosis it seeks ‚Äö- holding the originating questions open, and opening-up still others. In fact, this thinking about kenosis through architecture ultimately turns, and opens-up a unique thinking about architecture through kenosis ‚Äö- extending to architecture's very being. Kenotic emptiness asks of architecture's fullness, of the barriers to architecture's own kenosis. And it asks how such a kenosis might influence an increasingly secularised, globalised, and environmentalised ‚Äö- indeed, aestheticised ‚Äö- world. Questions of kenosis, creativity, and architecture are explored in the interest of elevating humanity's thinking about the aesthetisation of culture; a critical pursuit, worthy to be critically considered, since such thinking affects virtually everyone and everything.