Architectural Knowledge in the UDC, BBK and GRNTI Classifiers: Meaningful Aspect

Abstract

Russian library classifiers and the Rubricator of Scientific and Technical Information are considered in the paper as far as they reflect architectural knowledge, this time, in terms of content. Conceptual and terminological analysis of the texts of the documents show that the bulk of information about architecture in them belongs to four disciplinary areas – history, theory, typology, and methodology of architectures. The UDC analysis evidences that the historical array of concepts covers all eras of the development of architecture until the mid-sixties of the XXth century; the decline of modernism and the subsequent stages of history are not reflected in it. The vocabulary of UDC is dominated by the concepts of classics, the problems of aesthetics and the l theory of composition. The theory and methodology of architectural design and the typology of buildings are presented in a rationalistic, functionalist, industrialist version. The classifier does not reflect the current state and the newest historical period of architecture as a system of knowledge and gives rise to distorted ideas about the potential and trends of its development.