This argument is discussed through two case studies: a historical Chinese garden (Sima Guang's 'Garden of Solitary Enjoyment'), as a manifestation of Dao, and an educational situation from a contemporary architectural design studio in a school of architecture, as a manifestation of phronēsis. We argue that both terms bring forth the importance of ethics and practical wisdom in the making of architecture, as a process of cultivation. This paper makes a connection between the Chinese ideogram of 道 (dao = way), with the Greek term of φρόνησις (phronesis = practical wisdom), in the context of architecture. Nevertheless, traditional wisdom and personal cultivation is often neglected in this process of creating architecture. In this sense, coherence is proposed to be, not a theoretical concept, but rather a fundamental design practice that in the design studio, could help teachers and students to design and talk about architecture in a deeper and more though-provoking way.Ĭontemporary China, the largest construction site in the world, is the center of production of architectural 'vessels' that are compacted with technical and scientific knowledge. The paper will show such examples and will come to suggest that there where incoherence is a result of confusion and not the deliberate outcome of conscious thinking, practicing some coherence tests can be proved a remedy (a pharmakon). Words being literally concretized into spatial form (e.g.

Misappropriation of terms to describe design processes (e.g. Not in the overall design products compared to each other, but rather in the individual projects and minds of both students and teachers. Nevertheless, in our days, one sees more and more a widespread incoherence in design education. Understandings of structures (instead of a structure), translation between systems of knowledge, difference, transition as a means of unity and freeplay, are some of the lessons that have been learned and should be kept well under ones belt for future reference. Undoubtedly, this critique has a strong basis and a lot has been learned during the last fifty years. This hesitation to talk about coherence in design thinking and doing has to do with the term's obvious relationship with notions of structure and order -both unfashionable terms in contemporary architectural discourse that have been fiercely criticized by what is commonly known as post-structuralism. Although coherence seems to be a virtue in the first place, both experience by teaching in schools of architecture and current scholarship proves that it is not a fashionable discourse in our days. The coherence theory of truth argues that the status of truth of any proposition lays in its coherence with a specified set of propositions. Philosophers, in particular, have used the term in order to define truth, one of the most problematic, but also essential, products of human thought. As a property of thought it is often used metaphorically in the construction of meaning.

As a property of the physical world it is studied by the natural sciences, like physics, in the study of waves (physical, light waves etc).

Coherence synonym