Mateja Kurir
https://doi.org/10.60152/7b9nedd4
Abstract: This paper examines the concept of das Unheimliche (the uncanny) as theorized by Sigmund Freud and interpreted within architectural and philosophical discourse. The uncanny—an unsettling feeling arising from what is simultaneously familiar and strange—was discussed by Freud (1919) and later developed by Heidegger, who gave it an ontological and spatial dimension. The uncanny can be read as a remnant of Enlightenment rationality: an excess or remainder that eludes reason and mastery, functioning as counterpart of the sublime. Within architectural theory, the notion of the uncanny has been extensively explored since the 1990s, particularly following Anthony Vidler’s The Architectural Uncanny (1992), and continues to resonate in contemporary studies, connecting space, anxiety, and perception. Freud’s essay provides numerous examples of the uncanny, only a few of which are explicitly spatial, such as being lost in the labyrinthine streets of Genoa or trapped in a foggy forest, revealing how spatial disorientation provokes psychic unease. These instances suggest that the uncanny not only emerges from the unconscious but is also materially embedded in space and movement. The paper will present the cases discussed by Freud, with special emphasis on the spatial dimension, to reveal how the uncanny unfolds at the threshold between the homely and the unhomely. Finally, it will explore how this spatial dimension connects to contemporary theories of the sublime within the context of the Anthropocene.
Keywords: uncanny, Freud, sublime, Anthropocene, space
How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):
Kurir, M. (2025) ‘The Architectural Features of Freud’s Uncanny‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp.48–53.
See publication On Architecture (2025) Conference Proceedings