The function of repetition in typology

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis will be to attempt an analogy between the topography of architectural production, as witnessed by the evolution and employment of architectural typologies, and the topography of mental production, as proposed by Sigmund Freud. The premises for the analogy will be the assumption that architectural production constitutes part of the cultural production, and the Freudian thesis of the connection between the development of the individual and the development of culture under the domination of the same form of instinctual repression. The first part of the thesis will examine the role of repetition in the evolution of architectural typology, in parallel to the role of repetition (compulsion to repeat) in the mechanism of instinctual repression of the Freudian model. The analogy will not serve as a claim for the nature of the productive mechanism in architecture , but as a vehicle for the analysis of the participating forces during its operation. The second part will attempt a more direct extrapolation from the development of cultural ideas to the development of architectural ideas during the period of the Enlightenment in the work of Piranesi, Boullee and Ledoux.