Therefore, architecture can be called a full-fledged philosophy of form, or, if it is more familiar, «philosophy in stone,» although it is possible that after a while, we will see the architecture that structures space not with matter, but with force fields. Philosophy, in turn, is the architecture of concepts, the world view of the world creation. The thought of a philosopher connects words–bricks, the thought of an architect – forms, which are concepts and images at the same time.
The thirst for form creation is inherent in people in general, just as the thirst for new music is inherent in composers. The concept of form is integral, and history is the development of forms. The development of meanings stands behind the development of forms. How exactly does a particular form relate to the meaning? What meaning and in what manner does it convey? Precisely these forms flourish in every epoch. And looking at the forms of different epochs and peoples, we can feel for ourselves how different the ideas behind them are. The approach of art experts to appreciate the art of all countries and peoples in the same manner does not devalue the inherent desire of people to find the meaning of life associated with a single Truth. The choice of a world view or religion becomes a choice of an external form, environment, and lifestyle. Aleksei Losev would use here the concept of «myth» – as a historical unity of views, lifestyle of people and the entire created environment.
In the search for new volumetric and spatial compositions, architecture turns to nature and technology, science and art, music and painting, and, of course, philosophy. The achievements of philosophy do not have a generally binding mathematical compulsion, and the choice of philosophical teaching consonant with oneself may in many ways have the character of an aesthetic preference. Thus, the doctrine of the synthesis of opposites in dialectical philosophies seems to the author more beautiful (and therefore more logical) than fixing binary oppositions without resolving their opposition. The apotheosis of this approach was the aphorism of fr. Pavel Florensky: «Rublev’s Trinity exists; therefore God exists.» In moments of doubt about religious faith, one can consider figure skating: how can such beauty come from nowhere and go nowhere? And Aleksei Losev called his philosophy a «ballet of categories.» Logic and beauty, meaning and form are mysteriously interconnected.
Therefore, in the search for architectural beauty and expressiveness, it is logical to turn to philosophy and aesthetics as a storehouse of thought, its constructions, its structurality and movement. The deepest source of this kind is the philosophy of Aleksei Fyodorovich Losev, which has melted down into a new synthesis, a new fusion of ancient, medieval, New European German and Russian Christian philosophy.
The ideas and principles of A. Losev’s philosophy can become living seeds for new branches of modern architectural propaedeutics. The author of this book, to the best of his ability, has developed the semantic unity of some of these principles with the concepts of architectural propaedeutics. This work resulted in essays on applied architectural aesthetics – a pedagogical system of dialectical architectural form generation for volumetric and spatial compositions.