Contemporary Georgian Architectural Theory and Practice: The legacy of Shota Bostanashvili

Abstract

Shota Bostanashvili (1948-2013), a practicing architect and a pioneer in developing the poetics of architecture, was a cultural theorist. His philosophy centered around an architectural discourse specifically addressing architecture and linguistic play, and the semiotics of architecture. The objective of this paper is to identify the themes underpinning his philosophy of architecture and his legacy relative to his contemporaries. This paper is based on primary sources including Bostanashvili’s buildings, monuments, and publications together with unpublished material from the Shota Bostanashvili Archive (Tbilisi). Reference is also made to video footage from the Georgian Public Broadcast, conferences, and other sources. This paper concludes by identifying outstanding milestones in Bostanashvili’s legacy, both on a pragmatic and a theoretical level. The former relates to the poetics and metapoetics of architecture whilst the latter correlates to architecture as a unique individual spiritual experience and to the poetics of space as part of cultural history rather than phenomenology. He opted for paper architecture as a mode of abstract and poetic expression to approach architecture design education. This paper delves into the margins of normative European architectural historiography. It is a first in documenting in detail the legacy of Shota Bostanashvili, an outstanding Georgian architect, academic, sculptor, and poet who is barely known in Western countries, thereby highlighting his impact on the theory of architecture.