These are some considerations suggested to me by a recent conversation I had with a colleague architect, concerning the reception of the concept of space in architecture, before the modern epoch. I hope it can contribute to avoiding some possible misinterpretations, where, in a previous article — Concepts of Space in Vitruvius — I spoke about the possibility to interpret…
Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space and place. This is my reformulation of Mies van der Rohe’s famous definition of Architecture: “Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space”. [1] Space, alone, is no more sufficient to describe the systemic complexity of architecture, which, at the beginning of a new era, is better understood…
I arrived at the conclusion that whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more, for space in the image of man is place, and time in the image of man is occasion. Split apart by the schizophrenic mechanism of determinist thinking, time and space remain frozen abstractions… A house should therefore be a bunch of places – a…
Images 01-02: Early study painting for the Vitra Fire Station, © Zaha Hadid Foundation (left). Encounter on the roof at the Vitra Fire Station, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (1990-1993), Weil am Rhein, DE, 17 April 1995 (right). Slideshow: Event-place — Encounter with and Celebration at the Messner Mountain Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (2012-2015), Plan de Corones, IT,…
Architecture creates spaces and modifies places for dwelling. That is my definition of architecture: a discipline primarily concerned with space, place, and ‘dwelling’, which is its ultimate scope. A discipline in-between the ideal (i.e., the mental) and the physical (i.e., the corporeal), the abstract and the concrete, the potential and the actual. Spaces, which are ideal and abstract entities, can…