Abstract

Since the institution of its teaching in the 17th century, architecture has been socially established as the universal discipline which teaches the knowledgeable and modern way of building. Considering the numerous discourses and doctrines by which it had been influenced, architecture was shown successively as a "building art", an " applied aesthetics" to building, a "building science", a "building technology", etc. Over the passing centuries, all these discourses and doctrines have produced several abstract descriptions and representations of the act of building, and that way, they contributed to expand architecture's knowledge. Mainly, it's about theoretical representations of the built objects , such as the "form/function " model, or the vitruvian model of the "graceful, useful and strength building"; theoretical representations of the design process, such as the "problem definition/problem solving" model, or the "program/architectural project" model. This thesis proposes a rigorous philosophical framework which contribute to the understanding and the interpretation of the main object of architecture's knowledge: the whole act of building. By adopting a hermeneutical approach, which deals primary with the anthropological meanings of the act of building, the thesis revisits the main theoretical models of architecture with a new point of view, and proposes in the same time some theoretical basis which lead to a conceptualization of the act of building in the realm of the practical philosophy, i.e.: in ethics. ;The apprehension of the act of building from its anthropological meanings requires a certain recognition of the deeply-rooted being of building in dwelling, and militates in favor of a real "dwelling turn" in architecture. Our reflection about the notion of dwelling had led us to find out and disclose two different, but very complement, meanings. First is dwelling considered as human relationships to things and built setting; in this sense, the end of the building process lead to the beginning of the act of dwelling among the produced things. Second is dwelling regarded as human relationships to people; in this sense, the whole act of building, since it mobilizes a plurality of actors, become itself an arena for the manifestation of dwelling among people. ;Our recourse to the anthropological philosophies of Aristotle, Hannah Arendt and Paul Ricoeur had led us to enlighten more precisely the rich meanings of these two senses of building and dwelling. Starting first with the Aristotelian distinction between poiesis and praxis and ongoing with its main modern interpretation developed by Hannah Arendt in terms of making and acting , our research shows that the main theoretical models of architecture are dominated by the making vision of building. However, since three decades, we are witnessing the emergence of new concepts and models, which signal the restoration of the acting vision and the ethical dimension of the act of building