Digital Modernism Heritage Lexicon

In order to define the art of Architecture the text “Eupalinos ou O Arquiteto” by Paul Valery (1996) was chosen. Such text brings a discussion between Socrates and Fedro, his disciple, whose shadows are confined in the land of the dead. In this scenario, Fedro resumes a conversation he had with his friend Eupalinos, the architect of Aqueducts and the Temple of Hermes, in which Eupalinos makes a comparison between two forms of art—Architecture and Music. He divides buildings between thosewhich are silent, thosewhich speak, and thosewhich sing. For him, the buildings that neither speak nor sing deserve only disdain; they are dead things, they are nothing but piles of stones dumped by the contractors’ wagons. Monuments that limit themselves to speaking, if they do so clearly, deserve attention; they are able to gather merchants, allow judges to deliberate, welcome the groans of prisoners [...] merchant galleries, courts, and prisons, when well built, have the clearest language. However, Eupalinos highlights those buildings of unique art—the buildings that sing—“The most beautiful aspect of Architecture lives in them because it presents itself not only as the building that imposes itself against nature but as the building that imposes itself against theman, as he is, as in tragedies. A building made of choice, of the freedom to choose [...] designed in the deepest encounter with oneself” (Valery, 1996, p. 57, editors version) [1]. The singing buildings reveal the various faces of the soul, where their strengths and graces are tamed by the constructive act. Thus, this book aims to investigate some lexicons that represent, compose and define the “singing buildings” of Modern Architecture. For this, it uses not only the study of Cultural Heritage that aims to identify, document, and preserve the memory of the past and the value of the future, but also the current digital technologies that have made it possible to register and evaluate the transformations of historic buildings marked by the action of time. It is undeniable that the relationship between man and the object has been changed significantly in recent decades and it is not different in relation to graphic language and representation. According to Flusser (2008) [2], the first traces of historical records were sculpted in stones, a relationship between man and tool, a record of memory in which the man is the subject of the world. Later, the man discovered ways to transfer the real world to paper and perfected it with the invention of perspective drawing; the registration of the works was largely executed through reproductions and drawings that were able to reveal different contexts—this is the relationship between man and the machine. From then on, the man felt the need to explain his visions conceptually, then he looked at the processes inaugurating the relationship between the man and the computer. Today, we live in the digital world of pressing computer keys. In historical and technological evolution, it is necessary to define not only the role of the machine but also the role of the man. Man has gone through great revolutions and today we are experiencing the Digital Revolution, which has brought changes in society and in its way of life. Therefore, this book seeks to combine this digitalmoment with the documentation of history, revisiting Modernism (1920–1960 and epigones), its paths and legacies, equipped with new tools and new perspectives. Modern architecture was born in a context of technical, social, and cultural changes linked to the Industrial Revolution. The strong demographic growth of Europe in the 19th century gave rise to major urban transformations, among them the rapid industrialization process of European cities that resulted in population displacement to large cities. The Industrial Revolution was largely responsible for the emergence of the movement that influenced art, literature, cinema, design, and architecture. New materials produced on a large scale, such as iron, glass, steel, and reinforced concrete, came to be used and allowed architects to create structurally distinct buildings. Concomitantly with new technological discoveries, the social function of architecture has always been part of the modern debate; they aimed at building a New World and breaking away from traditional spatial conceptions. From this context, the goal of this book was to investigate the modernist lexicon, 100 years after its birth, expressed not only in the field of architecture and engineering but also in all areas where it can be reread in a current and meaningful view, which ranges from aesthetic introspection to anti-technological reactions, through works by thinkers and artists ranging from Nietzsche to Gropius. The task in delineating the themes that compose this book is not easy due to the interesting approaches that transit through the tangible and intangible heritage of modernism, passing through its history, its constructive processes, its hybrid building mixing tradition and modernity. The book presents Modern Architecture and its representations, conservation, restoration, the documentation of this cultural heritage, and the drawing of the urban space and the facades of the public spaces. The chapters include contributions from different countries, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Catalonia, and the USA. The texts go through conceptual discussions about the modernist movement, about the meaning of the manufacture of the modern period and the digital age—they explore the process from vernacular architecture to the issue of innovative materials for Architecture and Engineering, such as steel, reinforced concrete, oxidized aluminum, among others. It encompasses analyses from the scale of urban furniture to bridges and tall buildings; from urban to rural places. It also brings studies developed from 3D digital mappings, analyses, and reflections on architectural heritage through 2D and 3D digitalmodels, digitization, and HBIM. Technologies include photogrammetry, laser scanning, registration based on the GIS (Geographic Information System) methodology. Includes studies on reference architects such asWalter Gropius,Mies Van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier and some highlights ofModernArchitecture inBrazil, among them Vilanova Artigas, Oscar Niemeyer, Lina Bo Bardi, and Rino Levi. The chapters present other important Italian architects such as Marcello Piacentini, LuigiMoretti, Giuseppe Vaccaro, William Pereira, Maurizio Sacripanti, and Giovanni Michelucci. All in all, this book is expected to support the study of Cultural Heritage: from different forms of art to architecture, from design to engineering, from literature to history, as representation as well as restoration, and as contributions to an international approach to the handling of this cultural heritage.