Towards an ethic of construction: The structural conception and the influence of mathematical language in architectural design

This paper deals with the influence of the scientific and technical knowledge on the architectonic culture, in order to underline the role they played in the design process during the centuries. The work goes over some characteristic phases of the history of constructions pointing out the so-called ethic of construction: the balance relationships between the various components of the building process. At the same time, the influence of the mathematical language in the process of architecture design is investigated. From the beginning, around the XVI and XVII century with the first drawings made by the renaissance architects, passing through the period of the birth of the Science of Structural Mechanics up to the present time, in which the non-linear geometry with the help of modern software leads the choices of the designers. In a period in which the architecture seems to release from the structural component of the Vitruvian triad (firmitas) it becomes important to make recall to the 'tectonic' tradition by taking into account all the aspects of the building practice: both those governed by the creative intuition, lying outside the structural calculus, and those related to the mathematic-mechanical models.