The norwegian architect Christian Norberg-Schulz was among the first to publish an architectural theory after 1945: "Intentions in architecture" (1963). This dissertation proposes an intellectual biography in order to determine the aims and sources of the book, especially regarding the description of architectural space. This dissertation seeks to counter actual readings of the book by arguing for a definition of architectural research as a retroactive process between theory, history, criticism, teaching and professional practice. The intertextual analysis of the summer house in Porto Ercole (1962), published in his theory, shows the house both as an architectural and scientific experience (in the sense of an experimental product) and a de facto proof of the theory's validity.