The building as primary source: theoretical fundamentals

The building as primary source

Theoretical fundamentals

Alberto Bologna (Università degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza)

This lesson is about the significance of the architectural artifact as primary knowledge source for any planned restoration or architectural intervention on its structure.
Starting from the assumption that architecture is a natural language common to designers from a variety of backgrounds and that this language is capable of acting as a “bridge” between different cultures and critical interpretations of the design, the author presents us a series of analytical and critical approaches showing valid methods of investigation beyond the building’s function or design program, all of them placing the materiality of both architecture and urban form at the heart of the interpretative process.

This approach applies particularly well in the case of structures built in exposed concrete. This is due to concrete’s intrinsic properties of malleability and formability given by its being a mixture able to assume tactile qualities and generate surface effects. Critical analysis of this kind of buildings, which are true to the essence of their construction material, can only take place through equally effective concreteness, investigating the “art of making” using the methodological scientific tools found construction history.
Construction history can be seen as a sort of “Technical anthropology”, assembling a multitude of approaches and disciplines: archaeology, historical anthropology, history of technique, history of art and architecture, history of economics and law, but also of the construction sector and the heritage sector. The different historians and critics quoted in this article all share the vision of construction history considering technique as the driving force behind the historical evolution of our built environment, summoned in what we call “Technological history”.