Reconsidering the Tectonic. On the sacred ambivalence of the tectonic in the light of Martin Heidegger and relevant theoretical studies on architecture

Abstract

Kenneth Frampton's critical regionalist interpretation of the tectonic applies the 19 th century terms of Karl Bötticher and Gottfried Semper to evaluate its role in initiating the architectural resistance, where it seems to hold a position without further cognitive prospects. Redirecting architecture essentially to philosophy, tectonics stands rather as it is given by the language and the natural use of structures or materials: in a sacral ambiguity presenting the ontological break between the frame and the cladding of a building. The revision of the Greek origin of the term reveals a Latin root as an alternative, which sheds light on the double meaning of the tectonic inherent in the architectural manifestation of Martin Heidegger's fourfold comparable to the similar modalities of Semper as well as Christian Norberg-Schulz. Based on its poetic and ritual characteristic, contemporary sacred architecture provides significant examples for both the analysis and the understanding of the symbolic debate of immanence opening up in the spatial occupation of the human being.

A Search for Genuine Regionalism: A Regenerative Agenda for the Peripheries

“…The will to find an architectural attitude that is capable of resisting the confrontations with the interest in globalisation allows a much more colourful palette of solutions than the tectonic. As it was explained by Katona (2010), even the actual meaning of tekton implies the freedom to fabricate textures not necessarily following the logic of the load-bearing structure. It is evident that primitive cultures which carve their homes out of porous cliffs, or others who erect thick whitewashed walls against the heat, do not build according to the tectonic, but rather to the stereotomic system.…”

Relief Method: The Analysis of Architectonic Façades by Fractal Geometry

“…Façades are often regarded with a sort of benign neglect, and mistakenly considered secondary to general plans, spatial structures, and syntax analyses, although a thorough survey on architectural theory would show that façades as autonomous entities have their own history. From Vitruvius to Andrea Palladio, from Palladio to Gottfried Semper, and from Semper to Vincent Scully-not to mention philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Gilles Deleuze or Jean Baudrillard-several renowned thinkers have given us opportunities to better understand the messages of buildings conveyed through their 'skin' [2]. However, the twofold nature of the tectonics is not represented in contemporary arguments, and the 'architectural phenomenologists' still prefer the dominance of structure over the buildings' meaningful elevations.…”

Thin mask, thick mnemonic: the idea of the wall and genius loci in two contemporary buildings

“…The English word 'wall' does not suggest or differentiate two meanings as in the German language, which offers two wall types -Mauer and Wand -differentiated by Gottfried Semper as a loadbearing structure and infilling structure, respectively. 6 However, it is questionable that there is no place for the wall as a loadbearing structure among other ancient building elements in Semper's theory of 'Four Elements' -hearth, roof, mould (earthwork), and enclosure (membrane).…”

“…Other panels use the lace pattern as an edging, and the latex casts were cut down gradually to form these part-decorated 'atmospheric reproduction of genius loci' are used in the search for a generating order, a communal life model and a craft of place-making, 31 with a particular focus on the wall, roof, room, corridor, courtyard, light, and materiality, interwoven into spatial organisation as a mnemonic of place. One of the interpretations of this modus operandi of genius loci is the completed Cultural Centre project located in Che'tian, a village in Guizhou province, in 2015 [6].…”