The Monthly Scientific Journal of Bagh-e Nazar

Comparing the Spatiality of Architecture and the Temporality of Music in the Ontological Horizon of Heidegger’s Thought

https://doi.org/10.22034/bagh.2026.570432.5973
Volume 23, Issue 159
September 2026
Pages 21-28
The Monthly Scientific Journal of Bagh-e Nazar

Document Type : Original Research Article

Author

Mansoor Habibdoost

Department of Music, Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

Abstract
Problem statement: The relationship between architecture and music has often been examined within the framework of formal analogies, sensory metaphors, and structural connections that are either reduced to rhythmic similarities and numerical proportions or are limited to the aesthetic experience of the audience. The central question of the research is that if architecture and music are both understood in Heidegger’s thought as ways of the emergence of truth, what is the relationship between the spatiality of architecture and the temporality of music, and how can this relationship open a new horizon for understanding the nature of art?
Research objective: To examine the relationship between architecture and music at a more fundamental level, within the ontological horizon of Martin Heidegger’s thought, rather than focusing on formal or perceptual similarities
Research method: This research has a qualitative and analytical-interpretive aspect and, in accordance with the nature of the question, is based on the analysis of philosophical texts and a critical rereading of existing interpretations. Therefore, relying on the key concepts of Martin Heidegger’s thought, especially his understanding of temporality, presence, the actuality of the artwork, and the relationship between making and inhabiting, the answer would be obtained.
Conclusion: Architecture and music are not simply two arts with different media, but two fundamental ways of realizing being; music as an art whose being unfolds in time, and architecture as one that enables the opening of space, are both understood in relation to the actuality of the work alongside the production process or the experience of the audience. Therefore, their comparison goes beyond the level of analogy only when formulated within the ontological horizon of Heidegger’s thought and with a critical distance from common phenomenological readings. This conclusion can be extended to other arts, because every art represents a way of openness of existence.

Keywords

Spatiality
Temporality
Architecture
Music
Martin Heidegger
Ontology of Art.
Subjects
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