Structure vs. Form. Toward an open architecture

Architecture is above all structure: the organisation and relationship between parts existing within a stable system of references. Architectural form possesses the vividness of a completed sign, the clarity of a closed gesture: a completeness that, nonetheless, accepting change only with great difficulty, is able to repel the inexorable flow of life. Change, in fact, is the basic state of the human condition. Resistance to transformation, to change, to the very corruption inherent to any form that occupies physical space can produce the beauty of the perfect sign, but not always the fullest expression of life. Beauty, in fact, is an illusion or a momentary achievement, destined for a corruption that anticipates its dissolution, and eventually its end. An open architecture can respond to this shifting condition. A device with an inherent potentiality for transformation, based on the strengths of its structural framework. A framework with a relation to a physical conformation and the indefinite variations introduced by possible partial occupations. The proposed text looks to identify a diverse approach to architectural design. Beginning with a selection of projects by the masters of the Modernist Movement, the intent is to identify the characteristics of spatial devices whose innate able to evoke change is a founding condition of architecture itself. The partial occupations that can involve the original architectural structure over time, by confirming the stability of the original framework, constitute exceptions to the rule. The same dialectic procedure can also be observed in the relations linking the notes of a musical score, or in the pattern of a fabric: the score and the pattern are supports to possible infinite variations produced by the successive application of notes and weaving. Faced with the dis-figuration that architecture is subject to over time, often for reasons imputable to unimaginable factors, the text will use the analysis of individual projects to identify the elements and techniques of an approach to architecture with the capacity to respond to this dynamic condition. The final objective is to “guide” possible changes within the limits of the rules dictated by the underlying structure of architecture.