The red thread of art and architecture

Konjikušić, Mia (author), Kosec, Miloš (mentor)

It can be argued that by studying how art influenced architecture and architecture influenced art, we are simultaneously speaking about social development. Art and architecture function as tools of human orientation, of narrating time, the way humans think, and the level of technological development of the period in which they are created. The relationship between architecture and art is a dynamic system that, throughout different historical periods, reflects the values of a particular society while simultaneously transforming it. Architecture and art are formed within the systems in which they emerge, regardless of whether they support or criticize their ideology. The central idea of the thesis is that art and architecture are not separate disciplines, but interconnected systems through which humanity constructs meaning, perception, and spatial experience. The relationship between art and architecture continuously develops together with broader cultural, political, and technological transformations, yet art and architecture remain fundamentally intertwined because both shape the way people orient themselves in the world. The thesis argues that architecture is never merely functional, just as art is never merely visual representation. Both disciplines function simultaneously as physical, emotional, symbolic, political, and experiential practices. Architecture frames perception and materializes ideology, while art challenges, broadens perspectives, destabilizes, and reinterprets spatial experience. Throughout history—from sacred spaces and mythological beliefs to museums, modernism, conceptual art, installation art, and contemporary spatial practice—the boundary between art and architecture continuously changes and reforms itself. The thesis also suggests that modern attempts to separate art from architecture through institutionalization, functionalism, and commodification were never completely successful. Even in moments of apparent autonomy, the two reconnect after a certain time with context, narrative, and ideology. Contemporary spatial practice increasingly reveals that meaning does not arise solely from isolated objects, but through relationships with environment, movement, memory, atmosphere, and interpretation.

• Language: English
• Keywords: art and architecture, spatial experience, aesthetics, space and emotion, architecture and power, cultural memory, built ideology, interdisciplinary architectural theory
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Typology: 2.09 - Master's Thesis
• Organization: FA - Faculty of Architecture
• Publication status: Published
• Place of publishing: [S. l.]
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 203 str.
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-184762
• COBISS.SI-ID: 286564867
• Publication date in RUL: 15.07.2026

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Rdeča nit umetnosti in arhitekture

Abstract

Lahko trdimo, da s preučevanjem, kako je umetnost vplivala na arhitekturo in arhitektura na umetnost, hkrati govorimo tudi o družbenem razvoju. Umetnost in arhitektura delujeta kot orodji človeške orientacije, pripovedovanja o času, načinu razmišljanja človeka ter stopnji tehnološke razvitosti obdobja, v katerem nastajata. Odnos med arhitekturo in umetnostjo je dinamičen sistem, ki v različnih zgodovinskih obdobjih zrcali vrednote posamezne družbe in jo obenem tudi spreminja. Arhitektura in umetnost se oblikujeta znotraj sistemov, v katerih nastajata, ne glede na to, ali podpirata ali kritizirata njihovo ideologijo. Centralna ideja naloge je, da umetnost in arhitektura nista ločeni disciplini, temveč medsebojno povezani sistemi, skozi katere človeštvo konstruira pomen, percepcijo in prostorsko izkušnjo. Odnos med umetnostjo in arhitekturo se kontinuirano razvija skupaj s širšimi kulturnimi, političnimi in tehnološkimi transformacijami, vendar umetnost in arhitektura ostajata temeljno prepleteni, saj obe oblikujeta način, kako se ljudje orientirajo v svetu. Naloga govori o tem, da arhitektura nikoli ni zgolj funkcionalna, prav tako kot umetnost ni zgolj vizualna reprezentacija. Obe disciplini delujeta hkrati kot fizične, emocionalne, simbolične, politične in izkustvene prakse. Arhitektura uokvirja percepcijo in materializira ideologijo, medtem ko umetnost izziva, širi poglede, destabilizira in reinterpretira prostorsko izkušnjo. Skozi zgodovino—od svetih prostorov in mitoloških prepričanj do muzejev, modernizma, konceptualne umetnosti, instalacijske umetnosti in sodobne prostorske prakse—se meja med umetnostjo in arhitekturo nenehno spreminja in ponovno oblikuje. Naloga prav tako nakazuje, da moderni poskusi ločevanja umetnosti od arhitekture skozi institucionalizacijo, funkcionalizem in modifikacijo nikoli niso bili popolnoma uspešni. Tudi v trenutkih navidezne avtonomije se obe po določenem času ponovno povežeta s kontekstom, narativom in ideologijo. Sodobna prostorska praksa vse bolj razkriva, da pomen ne izhaja zgolj iz izoliranih objektov, temveč skozi odnose do okolja, gibanja, spomina, atmosfere in interpretacije.

• Keywords: umetnost in arhitektura, prostorska izkušnja, estetika, prostor in čustvo, arhitektura in moč, kulturni spomin, grajena ideologija, interdisciplinarna arhitekturna teorija