https://aauforlag.dk/UserFiles/file/TOC-(1).

pdf

1
Carl Bötticher (1852)
The Principles of the Hellenic and Germanic Ways of Building
with Regard to Their Application to Our Present Way of Building

21
Gottfried Semper (1989)
The Four Elements of Architecture

49
Martin Heidegger (1977)
The Question Concerning Technology

71
Eduard Franz Sekler (1965)
Structure, Construction, Tectonics

85
Marco Frascari (1981)
The Tell-The-Tale-Detail

97
Carles Vallhonrat (1988)
Tectonics Considered – Between the Presence and the Absence of Artifice

115
Gevork Hartoonian (1994)
Ontology of Construction:
On Nihilism of Technology and Theories of Modern Architecture

145
Kenneth Frampton (1995)
Studies in Tectonics Culture: The Poetics of Construction in the
Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture

189
Jonathan Hale (2000)
Signs of Resistance: Re-membering Technology

199
Anne Beim (2004)
Tectonic Visions in Architecture

vi
 219
Niel Leach, David Turnbull & Chris Williams (2004)
Digital Tectonics

231
Mari Hvattum (2006)
Origins Redefined: A Tale of Pigs and Primitive Huts

241
David Leatherbarrow (2008)
Architecture Oriented Otherwise

251
Lars Spuybroek (2011)
The Digital Nature of Gothic

291
Mark Rakatansky (2012)
The Tectonic Acts of Desire and Doubt

321
Antoine Picon (2013)
Architecture, Innovation and Tradition

329
Michael U. Hensel, M. & Jeffrey Turko (2015)
Grounds and Envelopes

345
Karl Christiansen (2016)
The Paradox of Tectonics - Mortensrud Church

355
Jonas Holst (2017)
The Fall of the Tekton and The Rise of the Architect
On Greek Origins of Architectural Craftmanship

379
Isak Worre Foged (2018)
Environmental Tectonics: Convergences Between Six Causalities

395
Marie Frier Hvejsel (2018)
Gesture and Principle: Tectonics as a critical method in architecture

vii
 Preface

The background for this reader on Tectonics in Architecture involves a crossing of our
parallel, yet individual, tracks as we moved from being students with a high interest
in the joining of architecture and engineering into becoming faculty members at the
Department of Architecture, Design & Media Technology at Aalborg University, Denmark.
At the department, the pressing need for integrating architectural and engineering
knowledge in architectural practice was central to the establishment of the architecture
programme as a master of science degree in 1997. The idea that empathetic and visionary
spatial imagination combined with technical ingenuity can improve the quality of the
built environment and enrich everyday life is still central to our work, for students and
educators alike. The intention is to form a critical point of departure for addressing the
multiple environmental, technical and economic challenges that govern the development
of the built environment, inscribed in a problem-based learning philosophy and context.
It is our view, and the motivation for this Reader, that the question of tectonics holds
a central learning potential in this matter because of its joint capacity as theory and
practice.

In this effort, we are grateful to our former professors, Professor Poul Henning
Kirkegaard, today at Aarhus University, and Professor Karl Christiansen, currently at
Aarhus School of Architecture, who introduced us to tectonic theory when we entered
the Department of Architecture and Design at Aalborg University as students in 2002.
The seed for further studies on key sources on Tectonics in Architecture by Gottfried
Semper, Eduard Sekler, Marco Frascari and Kenneth Frampton, among others, formed
back then. Further research ventures into the topic followed, along with a common
wish to gather and communicate, develop and apply the potential of tectonic studies in
architectural education manifested in this reader.

The project would not have been possible without the patient and generous support of
Aalborg University Press. Especially, we want to thank Pernille Herold for her valuable
help in the editing process. The Section of Architecture & Urban Design in the Department
of Architecture, Design and Media Technology at Aalborg University has provided us
with funding and student assistance on the project, without which, the project would
simply not have been possible. Special acknowledgement goes to student assistants
Sofie Rejkjær Svendsen and Stine Kronsted Pedersen for their skilled, insightful and
professional support in preparing the selected texts for reprint.

ix
 Introduction

As the complexity of the building industry continues to grow, including multiple-

project parties, economies and technologies, the question of the relationship between
architecture and engineering is increasing in relevance. However, architecture and
engineering as collaborative activities often induce a focus on technical skills and
competences, compromising the necessary development of conceptual, philosophical
and reflective horizons in this relationship. Over 10 years of parallel research and
teaching on the topic, we have experienced how this entails a high degree of precision
in the terminology, both in describing architectural qualities as such and outlining and
describing the crossroads between architecture, engineering and even several other
fields of knowledge. If we want to innovate the built environment and improve its quality,
we must formulate visions based in knowledge about the historical development of
architecture and engineering, as well as emerging tendencies. Likewise, we require both
architectural and engineering skills and competencies, enabling us to act in design-led
research and practice. Ultimately, such a process necessitates an articulate relationship
between what we say and what we do in architecture; otherwise, our visions will never
become reality. Hence, our primary motivation for this reader is the desire to equip
students with a nuanced ability to communicate, explore and elaborate ideas, narratives,
sketches, models and so on.

The need to equip our students is where reading and the specific scope of Tectonics in
Architecture come into play. In our conception, the reference to the work of the Greek
tekton, a context-dependent bringing together of aesthetics and technique implied in the
notion of ‘tectonics’, opens a linkage of word and action in the crossing of architecture
and engineering. It is our observation that this double meaning, framing both the end
experience and effort invested in the work, forms a necessary foundation for continuous
learning in architecture. Consequently, the purpose of the Reader is, first, to communicate
this potential to students of architecture and engineering, and second, to invite further
development and application of tectonic theory and methods in architectural education,
research and practice.

The reader was originally intended as a collection of texts, which were to span the
broad field of architecture. However, in the mapping of texts suited for the collection, it
became clear that if we wanted to sharpen the terminology used and make the collection
instrumental for the above-stated aims, a more specific trajectory in architecture would
be beneficial. As both editors have tectonics in architecture as part of their primary field
of interest, it was not difficult to narrow the scope of the publication to a reader on
Tectonics in Architecture.

xi
In the last 5–10 years, we have seen the publication of several excellent general readers on
architectural theory emerge, such as Korydon Smith’s Introducing Architectural Theory
– Debating a Discipline from 2012 and Michael Hensel, Achim Menges and Christopher
Hight’s Space Reader: Heterogeneous Space in Architecture from 2009. Likewise, we have
seen several anthologies attributing a decisive meaning to the question of technology,
and the philosophy of technology related to architecture, as presented in Jonathan Hale
& William Braham’s Rethinking Technology: A Reader in Architectural Theory from 2006.
However, a reader devoted explicitly to the topic of tectonics remains an unresolved
potential. In addressing the gap between these two lines of pedagogical advancements
in the field of architecture, this reader on Tectonics in Architecture presents the notion of
tectonics as a critical and methodological entrance to the broader field of architectural
theory. Hence, with the intention of forming a common point of reference from which to
expand and continue the discourse on how to innovate the built environment by means
of tectonic theory, method and practice, this Reader presents a selection of key readings
on Tectonics in Architecture. The collection primarily addresses students of architecture
and engineering, but it simultaneously provides an overview of key readings in the field
as a hitherto non-existing foundation for further research on the topic.

Enjoy the Read!

xii