Search

This study deals with the redevelopment of buildings built in the last decades of the Nineteenth century, with a style that can be defined "post-modern". In those years, communication became an architectural theme superimposed and abstract by functional and structural needs, with "architectural elements" abstract in a hyperbolic way with respect to the function. The result of an architectural culture, interesting for the research they narrate but incongruous with functional needs, also because of the materials used, the energy and architectural requirements impose a review to combine functional performance, in nZEB projection, and structural with the need for "venustas", what is "done well", the same facet of the same architectural rationale. The need to renew these spaces must take into account the qualities of forms that, with their material decay and in the peculiar language, may not bring out the centrality of preserving and compositional choices of the work.

Architecture, as one of the oldest areas of human activity, describes several categories that seem to be effective today: firmitas, utilities, venustas. But on the other hand, almost every period re-examines and reinterprets these terms. What is happening today? Are there old provisions still? Can we create new ones or expand, modify or re-create them? This paper evaluates the term of the architectural theme to contribute to the creation of a kind of critical vocabulary of contemporary architecture in the context of understanding architectural thought. Different ways of understanding/interpreting an architectural term can lead us to a new and different way of understanding and comprehending architecture itself in a modern changing world. This paper considers the relationship between fractal geometry and architecture as they respond to complexity and order, through the architectural term “self-similarity”.

A finalidade explícita na arquitetura e ênfase na utilidade, no aspecto de uma aplicação prática, intrigou filósofos alemães como Immanuel Kant e August Schlegel. O entrelaçamento entre beleza e finalidade na arquitetura fora notado cedo por Marco Vitrúvio Polião (81 a.C.-15d d.C.), que aponta utilidade, solidez e beleza como características fundamentais da obra arquitetônica. Segundo Guyer (2011), a partir de Kant, o pensamento filosófico sobre a arquitetura começa a apresentar um distanciamento em relação a Vitrúvio, de modo que, mesmo sem total renúncia à tríade vitruviana no pensamento de Kant, este defende ser a característica principal da arquitetura representar ideias estéticas. A tese de Guyer aponta o desenvolvimento desse ponto de Kant em Schelling, Hegel e Schopenhauer, todavia com uma lacuna: August Schlegel (1767-1845), fundador do primeiro sistema de belas artes com sua Kunstlehre (1801-1804). Buscaremos aprofundar como a tese de Guyer não só é válida, mas ganha mais solidez no caso de August Schlegel e do papel que este confere à imaginação na arquitetura. Após a indicação de elementos vitruvianos e pós-vitruvianos em Kant e Schlegel, indicaremos as divergências entre ambos na apreciação da arquitetura, a partir de suas articulações entre arquitetura e finalidade.

Indonesian cultural richness and natural diversities have given birth to an abundance of Nusantara traditional architectural diversities. For most people, these architectural diversities have been frequently regarded as antiquities and deemed to be unreliable for an inhabitable building. They misunderstand the use of natural materials that are seemingly easy to decay or be worn out and the absence of nail in the construction as rendering such a building to be lack of structural robustness, ergo its skewness. This paper aims to provide a study of Vitruvius theory application in Nusantara architecture while proving that archipelago architectural buildings are suitable to inhabit. Qualitative methods were used in this study by conducting literature studies on Waerebo and Toraja architecture as a comparison and to provide a better understanding of the phenomenon. Aspects of Firmness, Utilities and Venustas starting from natural materials, construction as robustness and the architectural aesthetics became the studied objects. The study showed that Nusantara architecture also has a stable robustness level with its unique natural material construction techniques. For the utility principle application in Nusantara architectural was not reflected in the building functions aspects but rather in the designation of social functions identity. While the venustas application can be seen in ornaments, carving and tie techniques. The result also provide a theoretical reference of robustness, utilisation, and aesthetics of Nusantara houses that indigenously constructed.

Theoretical research essay for educational and professional purposes. It deals with the qualities of architectural objects, extensible to all artificial objects with functional roles. It clarifies theoretical substantive concepts for teaching, and is at the same time an instrumental epistemology for the design process. The more clarity and development of these qualitative categories, the more accurate and comprehensive the design as a technological practice aimed at changing the environment. As it is a founding theory, many concepts come from classical, not ephemeral, bibliography. The empirical-analytical method allows comparing concepts with a deep analytical reflection after the human experimental relationship with artificial objects and their properties. The design literature has used some of these concepts, but usually without adequate detail and due updating. The traditional Vitruvian conceptual taxonomy of utilitas, firmitas and venustas is a good basis, but it is insufficient, especially since they do not incorporate other semiotic variables apart from aesthetics, and it leaves costs aside. The qualitative categories of utility, stability, meanings, economic cost and environmental cost are proposed and detailed in their entirety, plus sustainability as an integral supra-quality. Utility and meanings as functional qualities; stability and costs as typical of the object itself. The concept of function extends to practical utilitarian functions and to the semiotic function of artificial objects. Ensayo investigativo teórico con finalidad didáctica y profesional. Trata de las cualidades de los objetos arquitectónicos, extensibles a todos los objetos artificiales con roles funcionales. Clarifica conceptos sustantivos teóricos para la docencia, y es a la vez una epistemología instrumental para el proceso de diseño. Entre más claridad y desarrollo de estas categorías cualitativas, más exacto e integral el diseño como práctica tecnológica dirigida a la modificación entorno. Por tratarse de una teoría fundamentadora, muchos conceptos provienen de bibliografía clásica, no efímera. El método empírico-analítico permite cotejar conceptos con una profunda reflexión analítica tras la relación experimental humana con los objetos artificiales y sus propiedades. La literatura del diseño hay utilizado algunos de estos conceptos, pero usualmente sin el adecuado detalle y debida actualización. La tradicional taxonomía conceptual vitruviana de utilitas, firmitas y venustas es una buena base, mas resulta insuficiente, especialmente porque no incorporan otras variables semióticas aparte de la estética, y deja de lado los costos. Se proponen y detallan integralmente las categorías cualitativas la utilidad, estabilidad, significados, costo económico y costo ambiental, más la sostenibilidad como supra-cualidad integral. La utilidad y significados como cualidades funcionales; la estabilidad y costos como propias del objeto en sí. El concepto de función se extiende a las función práctica utilitaria y a la función semiótica de los objetos artificiales.&nbsp

In De Arquitectura, Vitruvius lists three interrelated Latin terms – firmitas (strength or structural stability), utilitas (functionality or appropriate spatial accommodation), and venustas (beauty or attractive appearance), as being the basis of good architecture. Regarding firmitas, he implies that a good architect needs to choose the best and most solid materials, regardless of their cost. Yet, perhaps dismissing Vitruvius's advice, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, most Postmodern architects went on to erect buildings that often looked more like stage sets than anything strong and durable.Postmodern designers applied colour, pattern, and ornament to buildings, transferring ordinary and everyday popular imagery, forms, and material into high culture. By rejecting modern design and aesthetics, they also dismissed the building techniques and materials used by their predecessors. As explained by experts from the Portland-based architecture firm Peter Meijer Architect, PC (PMA), ‘there is an inherent impermanence of the original materials based on a default decision making process that limited a building's longevity to a twenty-five year life-cycle’ for Postmodern architecture. In other words, Postmodern buildings were often built as ephemeral constructions, for which longevity was not an absolute value.

La belleza es, desde la tradición clásica, una de las partes esenciales de la buena arquitectura, pero al mismo tiempo una de las más esquivas y difíciles de definir. Frente a cuestiones como la solidez o la funcionalidad, objetivamente evaluables, lo bello parece escapar a cualquier pretensión de comprensión unívoca, apelando a la subjetividad del observador y a la relación de este tanto con el hecho arquitectónico como con su propio contexto cultural. A lo largo de la historia han sido varios los intentos de acotar ese concepto de belleza arquitectónica. Este texto aborda algunas de las aportaciones, fundamentalmente americanas, que durante el siglo XX quisieron identificar la belleza en unos rasgos que, de acuerdo a la más consolidada tradición formal, deberían estar desprovistos de ella: la ausencia de orden y armonía. Unas aportaciones que, al contrario que otros intentos de legitimación del desorden mediante su asociación a determinados cánones estéticos, como lo sublime, lo grotesco o lo feo, trataron de redefinir el propio concepto cultural de belleza. Y, al hacerlo, reconectaron este valor no solo con el resto de principios de la tradición clásica –firmeza, utilidad–, sino también con algunos de los retos de la arquitectura actual. The beauty is, from the classical tradition, one of the essential components of the good architecture, but at the same time one of the most elusive and difficult to be defined. Faced with objectively evaluable issues such as solidity or functionality, the beauty escapes from any pretension of being univocal understood and it seems to appeal to the subjectivity of the observer, their relationship with the architectural fact and their own cultural context. There have been several attempts to limit that concept of architectural beauty throughout history. This paper addresses some of the contributions that during the 20th century wanted to identify beauty in features that, according to the most classical formal tradition, should be devoid of it: the absence of order and harmony. These, unlike other attempts to legitimize disorder through its association with certain aesthetic canons such as the sublime, the grotesque or the ugly, tried to redefine the cultural concept of beauty itself. And in doing so, they not only reconnected this value with the other principles of the classical tradition –durability, utility–, but as well with some of the challenges that contemporary architecture has to face.

This thesis explores Vitruvius and his impact upon other Renaissance architects who compare a city to a building or a building to a city, who match the city and the building into a human body, and who develop their own works. The objective of this study is to furnish an interpretation of their theory and practice through their literature and designs. In this point of view, this article takes notice of Vitruvius’s six concepts coined from venustas and divides them into two parts: i.e. aesthetic quality (ordinatio, dispositio, and distributio) and technical activity (eurythmia, symmetria, and decor) each. This thesis indicates that Vitruvius’s successive impacts from the concepts bring about concrete design principles through proportional measurements, placing together, and hierarchic values for the former, as well as appropriate use through beautiful look, symmetrical harmony, and appropriate uses for the latter, tracking notions between a city as a house and vice versa, and either the ideas of the house or the city in the synthesis of the human body, which follows the perfect number and module based on the human body. The thesis shows that the representations of architecture and the city take place with the form of a circle and a square that express the religious belief and the cosmos, substantiating the connection between the proportions of the human body and numbers, and ultimately satisfying a concept of centrality, which is slowly extended to the enclosed plaza at the urban level from chambers, atrium, and corridors at the residence level.

espanolVitruvio e Isidoro de Sevilla hacen referencia a la venustas. Sin embargo, el sentido que se le otorga en De Architectura difiere en lo sustancial al que aparece en las Etimologias. En este articulo nos proponemos constatar tales diferencias, lo que nos lleva a concluir que el hispalense no funda-menta su nocion de arquitectura en el tratado vitruviano. EnglishVitruvius and Isidore of Seville make reference to the venustas. However, the sense of it in De Architectura differs in substance with which appears in the Etymologies. In this article we intend to verify such differences, which leads us to conclude that the Seville does not base his notion of architecture on the vitruvian treated.

Venustas (beauty) in the architectural field is one of the qualities of architecture along with firmitas (firmness) and utilitas (utility). Given that pursuing beauty is one of the roles of an architect/designer, aesthetics, the discussion of beauty, cannot be excluded from architectural education. However, it is rare to find scholarly discussions that include aesthetic education and theory to explain the process of how students obtain knowledge of the aesthetics of architecture. This dissertation explores the pedagogy of aesthetic education in architectural design studios using a grounded theory approach. Based on a multicase study of three outstanding instructors' studios in three different schools, their 40 students and 3 administrators using observations, interviews and document reviews, a theoretical framework of “a process of aesthetic education in the architectural studio” is proposed. Finally, recommendations and implications for design educators are presented.

As any language, the language of architecture is characterized by specific qualities based on certain norms and regulations. During many centuries, the order has been considered as a central category connecting all the conceptions of the architectural language. In the second half of 1st century BC, a Roman architect Vitruvius asserted fundamentals of the modern architectural values in his treatise “The Ten Books on Architecture”, based on the rules of harmony. The key point of the treatise is the Vitruvian Triad—«firmitas, utilitas, venustas» (strength, utility, beauty). However, the modern rhythms of our society dictate new requirements for the architecture. The development of society is characterized, first, sufficient information richness in knowledge, production methods and technologies, materials, second, the globality of communication possibilities: plurality and accessibility of information sources transfer of innovation, high technology manufacturing, intelligent products. Such changes should affect the appearance of new concepts and styles in architecture, the changing goals and objectives, as well as ways and methods of their realization. Continuous flow of innovations change consumer needs, determine new fundamental aspects of architectural work. Therefore, “innovation” is a new fourth category modern fundamentals of architectural values. The article presents the innovative aspects of architectural activity, confirming the hypothesis of the emergence of a new category.

This paper enters into the debate between historicists and modernists of the third millennium, hopefully with logical and reasonable considerations. The starting point is the observation that the deterioration of the historic heritage, due to exceptional events or natural decay, leads to the common desire to reconstruct “a l’identique”, that is rebuilding as it was before. However, this desire faces the fear to reproduce unacceptable fake buildings. Our goal is to reflect about the process of reconstruction and emphasize the importance of the final aesthetical values (venustas), pointing out their common supremacy on historical truth. Considering the present western culture, defined as liquid, or even vaporized, our motivated opinion is that in architecture it is still possible to search for order. The paper stresses the significance of placing new constructions into their context, observing that there is no order without context, and no context without historic fake. Three case studies in the area of Bologna are reported: the reconstruction “a l’identique” of a medieval portico over the centuries, the recent reconstruction of some urban blocks and a new proposal for the reconstruction of a church that was recently destroyed by an earthquake.

The aim of this study is to update the traditional construction of the domed space in cut stone, which constitutes architectural heritage of the Mediterranean area and in particular of the Apulian area, recognizing in the organic structural morphology of the stone dome, the consubstantiality of the form, structure and symbol, which determines simultaneously venustas, firmitas and utilitas of Vitruvian triad. Starting from the analysis of historical hemispherical domes, this study focuses on the research on innovative solutions for bonding a hemispherical dome in dry stone, that optimize its construction compared to tradition, through the research of method to reduce the number of ashlars for the realization of new structural adornment in the aesthetic and static definition, and to simplify it thanks to the modern technologies for design and production of building elements.

The text of this article is organized in two parts, the first on architecture as a discipline, and the second on the architect practicing it. The two parts mirror each other. References are made to the treatise De Architectura of Vitruvius in Ancient Rome, and to several important moments of the history and theory of twentieth-century art and architecture. The notion of venustas, beauty, appears all through the text, in dotted lines, suggesting that the disappearance of this old ideal might have left room for new expressions of beauty. Is this ideal differently understood and recreated today by the architect, or are we now confronted with its absence, as if we contemplated an empty frame left after the painting has been removed?

Nowadays, new forms of virtual architecture are appearing as virtual worlds based on the Metaverse concept are becoming increasingly more popular, holding all kind of virtual versions of human activities. This paper aims to make a reflection on the features of these new architectures compared with their equivalents in the real world by means of an analysis through the prism of the three fundamental conditions of the classic architecture: Firmitas, Utilitas and Venustas. The text describes how these principles once stated by Vitruvius are now affected, modulated or changed in the digital realm by the introduction of the Virtualitas concept.

[EN] Vitruvius trio debate about the latin terms firmitas, utilitas, venustas from Ten Books on Architecture has had its ups and downs. The influence of the tripartite schematization seems to be graphically present in a xvith century drawing by Lázaro de Velasco, preserved on Cáceres from the early twentieth century. This pattern is verified by the author’s own comments and other annotations on the original Vitruvius’ text. The access to parallel graphic outlines from a triangular composition lets an approach to its genesis. Reference to the classic knowledge and trinity catholic symbolism showed by Lázaro de Velasco comments exemplify a cultural synthesis displayed in the reference work, [ES] El debate sobre las tríadas vitrubianas, a partir de la firmitas, utilitas, venustas de Los Diez Libros de Arquitectura ha tenido sus cumbres y sus simas. La influencia de la sistematización tripartita parece reflejarse gráficamente en el dibujo que Lázaro de Velasco realiza en el siglo xvi para su versión del tratado vitrubiano, conservada en Cáceres desde principios del siglo xx. El mencionado trazado se contrasta con los comentarios que el autor vierte sobre el mismo y sobre el texto original de Vitrubio. El acceso a otros trazados gráficos paralelos, a partir de la composición en triángulo, o del uso del número tres como referente gráfico, permite una aproximación a su génesis. Las referencias a la simbología del saber clásico y a la simbología trinitaria católica, destacadas por Lázaro de Velasco en sus comentarios, ilustran una síntesis cultural presente en la obra de referencia

[EN] Mathematics is related to many aspects of Architecture. The most obvious relationship is as a computational tool in the structures or installation analysis. However, the use of Maths in the design of architectural works is not an issue as usual and just it is the topic of our study., [ES] Las matemáticas están presentes en muchos aspectos de la arquitectura. La presencia más obvia es su uso como herramienta en cálculo de estructuras, instalaciones, etc. Quizás la vertiente menos explotada es su presencia en el diseño de espacios arquitectónicos y este es precisamente el tema en el que centramos la comunicación que presentamos., Este trabajo ha sido financiado parcialmente con la Ayuda de Innovación Docente del Dpto. de Matemática aplicada de la UPV (PID-DMA2012)

The number of games designed for various applications in healthcare is growing rapidly. However, balancing the needs of an applied game can be a difficult task, especially without a guiding vision or design framework. Here, we propose a philosophical framework inspired by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, which can be used as an approach to designing and developing applied games for healthcare and other contexts. Vitruvius believed any well designed artefact should exhibit the three principles of firmitas (soundness or sustainability), utilitas (utility or purpose) and venustas (attractiveness). We describe the Vitruvian approach to applied game design using the design process of Moodbot - a game for mental healthcare - as an example. In this paper, we reflect on the Moodbot project and the application of the Vitruvian triad herein.

Nowadays, new forms of virtual architecture are appearing as virtual worlds based on the Met averse concept are becoming increasingly more popular, holding all kind of virtual versions of human activities. This paper is a reflection on the features of these new architectures compared with their equivalents in the real world by means of an analysis through the prism of the three fundamental conditions of the classic architecture: Firmitas, Utilitas and Venustas. The text describes how these principles as stated by Vitruvius are now applicable, affected, modulated or changed in the digital realm by the introduction of the concept of Virtualitas. This approach helps to establish a framework for analysis and study of virtual building under a theoretical architectural perspective.

Bivalves form a significant proportion of the Middle and Upper Jurassic marine fauna of southern Tibet, with an upwards increase in diversity followed by drastic reduction in the Lower Cretaceous. Faunas are typically Tethyan. Systematic study of collections from Nyalam, Gamba and Jiangzi districts allows the establishment of new genera Venustas and Yoldioides in the Malletiidae and Antipectenoides in the Pectinidae and 13 new species in the following genera: Nuculoma, Mesosaccella, Grammatodon (Indogrammatodon), Oxytoma, Meleagrinella, Entolium, Ctenoides, Anisocardia and Protodiceras.

"La bellezza, ed il suo disciplinarsi nella ricerca della regola, trova storicamente e modernamente senso nella ricerca e caratterizzazione del concetto di struttura. Dopo le ricerche degli Anni Sessanta, il concetto di struttura/architettura migra dalle ricerche sulla linguistica al mondo dell’informatica e della comunicazione mediale. Ripensare – oggi - al concetto di bellezza come struttura codificabile nella trasmissione dei saperi progettuali, significa mettere in campo valori, termini astratti e formali, complessi che si basano per lo più sull’analisi comparata e contestuale dei concetto di ruolo, corrispondenza, relazione e rete. La struttura, in architettura, non coincide con la forma, ma consente che essa sia intelleggibile e descrivibile. I termini astratti che la determinano la rendono pertanto atta ad assumere identità sempre nuove e comunque identificabili. Il concetto di struttura in architettura, non è da confondere col tipo architettonico - che è comunque una “struttura” concettuale – diversamente dal tipo, essa si presenta alla generalità massima. Diversamente dal tipo, essa non esprime carattere evolutivo, storico o analogico. Possiede invece – come nelle scienze naturali – attitudine alla proprietà combinatoria, con assetti formali potenzialmente infiniti ma definibili. Si vuole, qui, dare risalto al paradigma della venustas che si esprime nell’“avere struttura” - ovvero l’essere dotata di una qualità intrinseca e riconoscibile (la struttura) - in relazione alla volontà (l’atto ordinatore, l’intenzionalità trasmissiva di regole e discipline, come tradizione o istruzione) del “dare struttura”. La struttura, nel progetto di architettura, può esprimersi nel risultato di un processo che nasce dall’attribuzione di un ruolo a determinati elementi, ovvero, il complesso di regole o istruzioni, che possono essere assunte, in modo limitato, da alcuni elementi tra loro simili o diversi. Per esempio: nella tradizione dell’architettura classica, la struttura di una facciata può essere rappresentata prendendo come riferimento il “ruolo” di una colonna binata, in un portale, o nella composizione di una facciata. Se questo suo ruolo, per es. è l’accentuare la centralità/assialità in un partito architettonico, la struttura della bellezza si esprime come la modalità per ottenere un risultato armonico. Sarà quindi la descrizione che l’elemento o gli elementi assumono nella composizione, la posizione determinante nel tutto, il numero, ovvero la frequenza, in cui gli elementi si presentano isolati o iterati, l’intensità, ossia il proporzionamento di un elemento rispetto ai simili. Analogamente al tipo, anche il numero e la frequenza sono elementi concorrenti ma non identificativi una struttura. E’ la stessa procedura vitruviana e palladiana che consente la codifica degli elementi del progetto in forma di racconto logico-astratto che si avvale della lingua scritta ma supportata dall’oggettività matematica. Essa corrisponde - non diversamente da una ricetta gastronomica - alla volontà di avere e dare struttura all’architettura, riconoscendo le leggi che ne determinano le relazioni per ricreare o di modificarne l’esito in modo controllato e consapevole, nella parte e nel tutto. Dal razionalismo rinascimentale alla rivoluzione illuminista, l’esigenza di modellare e ri-formulare la struttura spaziale dell’architettura secondo leggi naturali, si è espressa talvolta in processi di mimesi biomorfica. Si è riconosciuto alla materia - organica e inorganica – soprattutto dopo la scoperta delle sue forme microscopiche, la conferma di un assetto materiale e funzionale propriamente organizzato, cioè architettonico, in senso lato. L’architettura, come la struttura della cellula o dell’atomo, è riconoscibile, descrivibile e, pertanto, meccanicamente/fisicamente/biologicamente, riproducibile. "

La bellezza, e il suo disciplinarsi nella ricerca della regola, trova storicamente senso nella caratterizzazione del concetto di struttura. Dopo gli studi degli Anni Sessanta, il concetto di struttura/architettura è migrato dalla linguistica alla comunicazione mediale. Ripensare - oggi - al concetto di bellezza come struttura codificabile dei saperi progettuali, significa mettere in campo valori astratti e formali complessi basati sulla comparazione dei termini di ruolo, corrispondenza, relazione e rete. La struttura, in architettura, non coincide con la forma, ma ne consente intelleggibilità e descrizione, alla generalità massima. Diversamente dal tipo, che esprime carattere storico-evolutivo, ma analogamente alle scienze naturali, l’analisi e la concezione strutturale sono discipline empiriche, con attitudine alla proprietà combinatoria. La comunicazione in oggetto intende dare risalto alla venustas come “struttura” ed alla capacità di “dare struttura” alle forme e alla materia, attraverso dispositivi trasmissibili e descrivibili in termini logici e storico-culturali. 2. La struttura, nel progetto architettonico, è il risultato di un processo di attribuzione di ruolo a determinati elementi, come complesso di regole assunte da elementi tra loro simili o diversi. Questa procedura - vitruviana o palladiana - codifica gli elementi del progetto come racconto logico-astratto. Non diversamente da una ricetta gastronomica, essa ha per obiettivo la ricreazione o modifica di un prodotto, in modo controllato e consapevole. Dal razionalismo rinascimentale alla rivoluzione illuminista, l’esigenza di modellare e ri-formulare l’architettura secondo leggi naturali, si esprime nella mimesi biomorfica, riconoscendo alla materia un assetto formale e funzionale organizzato, architettonico, in senso lato. E’ nel corso dell’architettura novecentista che si può seguire la linea ininterrotta delle creazioni che si rifanno alla riflessione scientifico-naturale. Opere tese tra lo strutturalismo di Maillart e Michelucci, che trovano ragione e forma nelle concezioni antroposofiche di Rudolf Steiner o nelle ardite sperimentazioni statico-figurative di Gaudi. Dal punto di vista teorico - e per lo più conosciuta alla critica italiana - è la lettura del processo compositivo dell’architettura, come capacità di dare forma alle cose, a partire dagli assetti e stratificazioni della geologia terrestre. Questo approccio culturale, del tutto originale, è stato condotto da Rudolf Schwarz nel volume “Von der Bebauung der Erde” (1947). L’architetto renano ripercorre le radici culturali dell’analogia isomorfica in chiave espressionista, sottoponendo ogni proposizione alla serrata analisi in termini funzionali (1) ma rinnovandone altresì la carica utopica e spirituale. Questo processo razionale contiene parimenti le premesse e gli esiti delle sperimentazioni ”visionarie” che hanno percorso la cultura architettonica globale, dall’arte orientale al gotico, dall’Espressionismo di Hugo Häring al modernismo catalano. Tanto le inquietudini formali del mondo fiabesco e paradossale di Friedensreich Hundertwasser, quanto le creazioni della scuola ungherese di Imre Makovecz, sono espressioni estreme di un catalogo di architetture animate che trovano nel complesso valenciano di Santiago Calatrava la versione più tecnologica e lessicalmente aggiornata.

Vitruvius, a Roman architect in the first century BC considered as the first architect, has defined three interrelated qualities for the completeness of architecture in his book, De Architecture: firmitas, utilitas and venusta. “Firmitas” means strength and stability, which is the technical basis. “Utilitas” means utility and usefulness, which is the functional aspect. “Venustas” means attractiveness and liveliness, which is an abstract, spiritual aspect. Together, these qualities mean durability, convenience and beauty, laid out in that order

The historical difficulty in defining architecture corresponds to the complexity and variety of the actions implied, to their multiple interests and meanings, to the different knowledge and theories involved and to its great functional and cultural implications for human life and society. Vitruvius gave a notion of architecture as the emerging system of the main connections of firmitas, utilitas and venustas. A more recent and flexible definition is William Morris’s, who conceived architecture as something regarding “all the signs that mankind leaves on the Earth, except pure desert”. Today we could agreed on a definition of architecture as a whole of artifacts and signs that establish and define the human settlement. To explore its dimensions, performances, multiple values, we need a systemic approach allowing us to recognize and act more consciously in the whole of its variables.

The Roman master builder, Vitruvius composed his treatise de architectura libri decem (The Ten Books of Architecture) around the year 25 B.C. As far as we know, this was the first handbook to be written on architecture. In it he defines the art of building as firmitas, utilitas, venustas — firmness, commodity, and delight (Vitruv 1995). Since first put into words by Vitruvius, these three criteria have been cited time and again as being the determining factors of architecture.

Loos and Wittgenstein make a distinction between architecture as art and as building, and thereby point to what they hold to be a division as sharp as that between the sacred and the profane. It has been said that “What Kraus, Loos, and Wittgenstein have in common is their endeavor to separate and divide correctly.” What concerned them all was the question of normality, a normality that presides over discrete categories of experience and fiercely rejects any spillage across frontiers. Every student is familiar with the assumption made by Vitruvius that firmitas, utilitas, and venustas come together as if grown from the same root. The key to every one of the architectures of the past that inspire us lies in the varied balance of forces achieved in bringing the three competing elements into resolution; the agent of that resolution is a missing fourth element.

Vitruvio, in Treatise on Architecture, indicated as requisites for buildings: firmitas, utilitas and venustas. Safety (firmitas)therefore always had to accompany functionality (utilitas)and the rules of appearance (venustas). It may be assumed, in a more general acceptance, that firmitas also contains the concept of continuation in time. In that sense, however, a new requisite, vetustas, must be explicitly added. In fact, when referring to natural stones, he recommended extraction of samples from the quarry and leaving them exposed to the weather for two years, checking their condition before, and the Istituto Universitario di Architettura of Venice has adopted these so much so as to insert them in its own coat of arms (fig. 1).

Vitruvius, writing in the first century, B.C., set out three essential components of architectural design: firmitas, commoditas, and venustas (which his Elizabethan translator rendered as Firmness, Commodity, and Delight), and ever since they have remained the cornerstones of design and criticism. But the forces at work in the design process seem to me to be too complex to be so neatly categorized, and I propose in the following the image of an open field system in which architectural decisions are made through an unlimited number of transactions among a variety of people who are or should be interested in the making of particular buildings.

The Upper Silurian deposits in the southern Baltic region are represented by marine carbonaceous rocks and are subdivided into the Birstonas Beds of the Lower Ludlovian, the Pagegiai Beds of the Upper Ludlovian, and the Minija-Jura Beds of the Downtonian. The Birstonas Beds consist of clayey marls and dolomitic limestones. The thickness of the deposits reaches 101.2 m. The Birstonas strata are characterized by the following ostracods: Craspedobolbina robusta Mart., Pseudobollia krekenavensis Neck., Microcheilinella malinowieckaja Neck., Rectalloides aequalis (Neck.), Bairdiocypris venustas Abushik (nonem nudum), and Silenis subtriangulatus Neck. The ostracods Pseudoaparchites gregarias (Sarv) and Amygdalella nasuta Mart., which widespread in the upper part of the Birstonas Beds, arc also met with in the younger Pagegiai Beds. From the Birstonas Beds a new species, Microcheilinella formosa n. sp., is described. The Pagegiai Beds consist of interstratified clayey limestones and marls. The thickness...