Karsten Harries, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Yale University, has been selected to receive the inaugural Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality Forum (ACSF). The Award was instituted at the close of 2017 to mark the ten-year anniversary of the founding of ACSF. The purpose of the award is to recognize, celebrate, and raise public awareness of exceptional work that significantly advances the mission of the ACSF in architecture, landscape architecture, art, design, urbanism, planning, and related fields. Dr. Harries is the first to receive the Award because of his “seminal contributions to the philosophy of architecture and art,” according to the ACSF Board of Directors. Born in 1937 in Germany and trained at Yale University, Karsten Harries became Emeritus Professor in 2017 after teaching at Yale for more than 50 years. Dr. Harries is the author of more than 200 articles and reviews, and of ten books, several of which consider architecture and art, such as The Meaning of Modern Art (1968) and The Ethical Function of Architecture (1997), which won the International Architecture Book Award for Criticism from the American Institute of Architects. Much of his teaching and writing in recent years has focused on architecture as a way to address, according to Dr. Harries, “the question of the legitimacy and limits of that objectifying reason that presides over our science and technology.”Members of the Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality Forum believe that the design and experience of the built environment can assist the spiritual development of humanity in service of addressing some of the world’s most pressing issues. The mission of the ACSF is to provide an international forum for scholarship, education, practice, and advocacy regarding the cultural and spiritual significance of the built environment. More information about the ACSF and the Award can be found at the ACSF website acsforum.org.
