ABSTRACT
In a quite original study, Vesely seeks to rescue architectural elements from their theoretical autonomy. By working historically, he shows how acknowledgement of the fundamental natural conditions in the hermeneutics of the typical situation (praxis) accounts for the characteristics of architectural ordering prior to its emancipation into theory. Taking as his particular examples first the column and then, in a more sustained treatment, the obelisk, Vesely traces the continuity of meaning of these elements with their cultural contexts from the Mediterranean Bronze Age to the European Baroque.
