This dissertation claims that the wall has had a double nature from its very origins, being at the same time frame and continuous masonry. Hence, the dissertation also argues that the constructive and spatial characters of the wall are a synthesis of such duplicity, which makes it possible to go beyond the interpretations that label modernity as the ‘era of the frame’ and pre-modern times as the ‘era of masonry’, which supposedly concluded itself at the end of XIX century. While, on the one hand, the two natures of the wall have generated complexity and polysemy around it, they have also guaranteed its survival as idea, as site of theoretical and creative elaboration, as well as concrete structure. The thesis starts by identifying some fundamental wall types, drawing on the great treatises written between the XV and the XIX century; secondly, it addresses the wall as a surface and eventually the relationship between walls and openings, where the complex connections between the construction and the appearance of the wall emerge. In the second part, the focus shifts on the relationship between wall and space, in particular the urban dwelling space, which is chosen as the field to develop more in-depth analyses because of its condition of “mediocre subject”, i.e. far removed from the experimental and symbolic excesses to be found in monumental, institutional or infrastructural architecture. Some residential types are identified and their spaces are read as the repetition of a certain span (parallel walls systems), as systems of rooms, as a composition of circulations and espaces utiles (following J. Guadet’s nomenclature) connected to Beaux-Arts “plan poché” tradition. In each one of these cases, the elements of wall syntax, which have been previously identified, become the material base that makes it possible to materialize composition principles and spatial intentions. The third part of the thesis considers about one hundred residential projects, mostly contemporary ones, and tries to identify a “conscious combination” of the syntactic and compositional themes that emerged and established themselves over the past centuries: the enhanced syncretism of current times is interpreted as a rich confusion in which the idea of wall, once again, finds a way to regenerate itself.
La tesi sostiene che il muro, fin dalla propria origine, abbia avuto una doppia natura, quella del telaio e quella della muratura continua, e che i suoi caratteri costruttivi e spaziali siano stati e continuino a essere una sintesi di questa duplicità, al di là delle interpretazioni che individuano la contemporaneità come un’era del telaio in contrapposizione a un’era della muratura che si sarebbe conclusa alla fine del XIX secolo. Proprio la complessità e la polisemia accumulata in secoli di dialettica fra queste due nature del muro hanno permesso a quest’ultimo di sopravvivere come idea, come luogo teorico e poetico prima ancora che come manufatto concreto. La ricerca individua per prima cosa alcuni tipi murari fondamentali prendendo le mosse dai grandi trattati compresi fra i secoli XV e XIX, per poi passare al muro come superficie e infine al rapporto fra muro e apertura, in cui si svelano gli intricati rapporti fra costruzione e apparenza del manufatto murario. Successivamente l’attenzione si sposta sul rapporto fra il muro e lo spazio, e in particolare lo spazio della residenza urbana, che viene scelta come perimetro entro il quale svolgere ulteriori approfondimenti in virtù della sua condizione di tema mediocre, e cioè perlopiù lontano dagli eccessi sperimentali e simbolici dell’architettura monumentale, istituzionale o infrastrutturale. Vengono individuati alcuni tipi residenziali i cui spazi vengono letti in rapporto alla ripetizione di una campata (sistemi di muri paralleli), come sistemi di stanze, come composizione di circulations e surfaces utiles (secondo la dicitura di J. Guadet) inscritta nella tradizione Beaux-arts del plan poché. In ognuno di questi frangenti, gli elementi della sintassi muraria precedentemente individuata diventano la base materiale con cui è possibile concretizzare principii compositivi e intenzioni spaziali. La terza parte della tesi, infine, considera circa un centinaio di progetti residenziali perlopiù contemporanei tentando di individuare in essi una combinazione consapevole dei temi sintattici e compositivi che si sono delineati nei secoli passati, leggendo il forte sincretismo del momento attuale, nella cui ricca confusione l’idea muraria, ancora una volta, riesce a rigenerarsi.
La permanenza dell'idea muraria nell'architettura residenziale contemporanea
SULLAM, MAURO
Abstract
This dissertation claims that the wall has had a double nature from its very origins, being at the same time frame and continuous masonry. Hence, the dissertation also argues that the constructive and spatial characters of the wall are a synthesis of such duplicity, which makes it possible to go beyond the interpretations that label modernity as the ‘era of the frame’ and pre-modern times as the ‘era of masonry’, which supposedly concluded itself at the end of XIX century. While, on the one hand, the two natures of the wall have generated complexity and polysemy around it, they have also guaranteed its survival as idea, as site of theoretical and creative elaboration, as well as concrete structure. The thesis starts by identifying some fundamental wall types, drawing on the great treatises written between the XV and the XIX century; secondly, it addresses the wall as a surface and eventually the relationship between walls and openings, where the complex connections between the construction and the appearance of the wall emerge. In the second part, the focus shifts on the relationship between wall and space, in particular the urban dwelling space, which is chosen as the field to develop more in-depth analyses because of its condition of “mediocre subject”, i.e. far removed from the experimental and symbolic excesses to be found in monumental, institutional or infrastructural architecture. Some residential types are identified and their spaces are read as the repetition of a certain span (parallel walls systems), as systems of rooms, as a composition of circulations and espaces utiles (following J. Guadet’s nomenclature) connected to Beaux-Arts “plan poché” tradition. In each one of these cases, the elements of wall syntax, which have been previously identified, become the material base that makes it possible to materialize composition principles and spatial intentions. The third part of the thesis considers about one hundred residential projects, mostly contemporary ones, and tries to identify a “conscious combination” of the syntactic and compositional themes that emerged and established themselves over the past centuries: the enhanced syncretism of current times is interpreted as a rich confusion in which the idea of wall, once again, finds a way to regenerate itself.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/132125