Pietra su Pietra. Cinque parole chiave per l’architettura lo scavo, il peso, la luce, la superficie, il tempo

Stone on Stone. Five keywords for architecture: excavation, weight, light, surface, time

Abstract

Stone on Stone

Five keywords for architecture: excavation, weight, light, surface, time
Laying stone on the stone is the foundation of every architecture and is
more important than any language used to build. The choice of five key words
is linked (on a double track) by a common thread that unfolds the theme of
composing architecture throughout history.

excavation

Excavation is the primary act of building, the founding moment of
construction, the expression of the origins of architecture. "Building means
collaborating with the earth, leaving man's mark on a landscape that will be
forever altered; it also contributes to that slow transformation that is the very
life of cities

gravity

Gravity, and its control, express an awareness of the balance of the
parts, the advancement of language. "Gravity constructs space. Its importance
lies not simply in its static loads, but also in something more important: establishing order in space.

Light

The control of light is the transition from the original formof
construction, a necessary step that leads us from nature to human artifice. "A
great American poet, Wallace Stevens, once asked the architect: What part of
the sun does your building capture? What light enters your room? The architect
replied: The sun never knew its full grandeur until its rays struck the façade of a
building.

Surface

The surface and its many expressions are the advancement of modern
culture, the noble expression of order and ornament. "The surface is not
superficial at all, but profound and significant; and, indeed, it is precisely on
the surface that the most important, interesting, and even most sensual things
in our lives occur. The surface is the place of relationship – contact - par
excellence, and this relationship does not concern materials, but rather the
substance of material relationships.

Time

Finally, time, in its continuous flow, gives us back the dimension of
history, the traces of those who came before us and the replicas of those who
come after us. "Reconstructing means collaborating with time in its aspect of
the 'past,' capturing its spirit or modifying it, extending it, almost, toward a
longer future; it means discovering the secret of the sources beneath the
stones.

Architecture, as a suspension of time, should not be understood as an
eternal representation of a uniqueness, but as an expanded expression of its
contemporary universal existence.

Architectures worthy of being called such do not belong to the designer
or the era that created them, but live a life of their own and are restored to
eternity by the memory of men, as long as they still have memory.

Keywords: Excavation. Gravity. Light. Surface. Time.