From the past to the present, – Introduction to Architecture

While we continue our journey through architecture it was time to turn our head back to the past with the previous lesson taken from Pierre Luiggi Nervi’ book :
-Buildings
1) Municipal Stadium, Florence
2) Airplane Hangars in Orvieto, Terni, Umbria
3) UNESCO Headquarters, Paris
4) Pirell Office Building, Milan
5) Arena, Rome
6) Port Authority Bus Terminal, New York City

If we make a comparison between the past and the present we will see that the architectural criticism in the past ,somehow even in the present , unfortunately, has been almost exclusively from an aesthetic or formalist point of view.

Seeing that many buildings have problems of the various methods of constructions and of the non-technician who consider only the aesthetic aspect of a building , Pier came to a conclusion which says that a technically perfect work can be aesthetically inexpressive but there does not exist either in the past or present a work of architecture which is accepted and recognized as excellent form the aesthetic point of view which is not also excellent form a technology point of view.
Despite this , good technology seems to be a necessary though not sufficient condition for good architecture.Even the most technical and basic quality of constructions , that of stability, contribute gently to the achievement of a determined and desired architectural expression.Another technical element which influences the aesthetic and expressive result is the choice of the materials.

Architecture is very different from other arts. It has objective and subjective related with each other. The objective part consists of its physical structure and the subjective one has more to do with aesthetics and emotions. Architecture has to deal with statistic, technological, functional, economic factors as well. It is not just to create a beautiful building, but to make it standable in the same time. From the past until now don’t exist any building which can be named excellent if it is only aesthetically perfect, but if a work of architecture is technologically perfect it may lose a bit aesthetics.

As a conclusion, Pier Luigi Nervi agrees that the complex relationship between technology and aesthetics has remained unchanged from the past to the present.He believed that technological aspect of architecture supplied the solution and form which were received by the designer and given a personal final touch .



-The question that Nervi made was: How can an architect build correctly? Nervi gave an explanation based on some characteristics a building should have

Starting with:

-stability, a building should be resistant to external forces and loads;

-durability, proper material used and safeguarding precaution while building to make it durable and lasting in time;

–function, the building should have a proper proportion of the sizes and spaces; materials with respect of their use; ornaments; maximum result with minimum means; refinements of architectural elements which originated for utilitarian use through the history of architecture like: –Pediments, -Stone quarrying, -Capital and bases columns; in the term of function to eliminate the heavy masses a replacement of masonry with slender ribs was made and also instead of a solid wall there were made flaying buttresses to divide the force that went down to the foudation

–correctness, stating that the building should serve the purpose fot which it was built, it should be stable and survive the external elements



-material, is connected to the aesthetical sensitivity of the designer to also determinate the inner beauty and validity of the building, models, emphasizes and proportions it