Adrian Bousfield Snodgrass (2 April 1931 – 22 January 2025) was an Australian architect and scholar in

Buddhist studies Buddhist studies, also known as Buddhology, is the academic study of Buddhism. The term ''Buddhology'' was coined in the early 20th century by the Unitarian minister Joseph Estlin Carpenter to mean the "study of Buddhahood, the nature of the Bud ...

and

Buddhist art Buddhist art is visual art produced in the context of Buddhism. It includes Buddha in art, depictions of Gautama Buddha and other Buddhas and bodhisattvas in art, Buddhas and bodhisattvas, notable Buddhist figures both historical and mythical, ...

. He developed theories in the area of hermeneutical philosophy and its application to knowledge production and cross-cultural understanding. Snodgrass was co-editor of the journal ''Architectural Theory Review'' and Editor of ''Architectural Theory''.

Life and career

Snodgrass was born in

Kyogle Kyogle () is a town in the Northern Rivers region of northern New South Wales, Australia. It falls within the Local government in Australia, local government area of Kyogle Council. At the 2016 Australian census, 2016 census, Kyogle had a popu ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia in 1931. He was an Honorary Life Member of The Asian Arts Society of Australia (TAASA); President of the Australasian Association for Buddhist Studies (AABS); Research Associate at University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning; Senior Research Fellow in the School of Languages and Cultures at the same university; and adjunct professor in the Centre for Cultural Research at the University of Western Sydney. Snodgrass died on 22 January 2025, at the age of 93.

Works

Snodgrass is noted for several books on Asian art and symbolism, and for work developing the theme of hermeneutics in relation to architectural design. His scholarship drew substantially on the work of

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

Hans-Georg Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; 11 February 1900 – 13 March 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 on hermeneutics, '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''). Life Family and early life Gad ...

and numerous Japanese and Indian scholars to demonstrate that for us one of the chief values of historical study, and the study of cultures other than our own, resides in our encounter with their "otherness":

Asian Studies should aim not only to provide a knowledge of language, factual information and skills in critical analysis, but also to foster in a learning and research community the dialectics of interpretation, in which what is alien in the text of the other becomes the starting point for a process of questioning the horizons of our own prejudicial world in the hope of expanding and transforming them.Snodgrass, A. and R. Coyne. ''Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking'', Routledge 2006, p.164

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snodgrass, Adrian 1931 births 2025 deaths Hermeneutists Heidegger scholars Australian scholars of Buddhism New South Wales architects