O granicach refleksji Kanta nad architekturą i związkach jego analiz wyobraźni ze współczesnym badaniem nowoczesnej przestrzeni miejskiej

The material analyzed in this article has its source in Kant’s aesthetics and extends its scope to contemporary deconstructionist architectural projects and contemporary research into the role of imagination in the creating and experiencing of the space of the modern city. The point of departure is an analysis of the Kantian situating of architecture in the domain of the fine arts, and the intriguing difficulty of maintaining agreement between the criteria that Kant establishes for art in general and the utility that he recognizes to be an indispensable trait of the art of building. The analyses revolve around the question: is architecture (according to Kant) the domain of dependent beauty or a sphere of free creation and the possibility of pure aesthetic judgments? The second part of the article considers Kant’s studies of the activity of imagination and its connection with the intellect and understanding – as well as its relationship to taste – in the context of the urban effects of the action that is constructive and reflexive imagination; the space of the modern city is examined not only as a domain of the constructive embodiment of “dependent beauty” but also of “free beauty”.