Architecture develops from inside
to outside
Architecture
develops from inside to outside, as all things do in nature. It is in its
interior space that architecture finds its reason and motivation. Louis
Kahn once said that urbanisme is ultimately the planning of interior
spaces, meaning that architecture starts on the inside and moves toward the
outside, to meet nature, the sun in its posi-tions and courses along the
time of the day and the year; the winds, which have more or less strength
and relevance; the topography of the land, with its characteristics and
peculiarities. In nature a plant is first of all a plant. It is not a tree,
a rock, the grass at its base, and it differs even from another plant of
the same type. It is formed in a certain manner, with its own
characteristics, and it carries out certain functions. It absorbs water
from the ground, transmits it upwards to the leaves and utilizes the carbon
dioxide present in the air to produce oxygen and sugars, for its own nutrition
and for the
well-being of the atmosphere and its creatures. A rock is hard at the touch,
and heavy. If it is on the bank of a river or
a canal it is
likely to get wet, have water splashed all over it. It might grow moss on it as
well. Water is normally transparent, and it
can be found in
different forms: liquid, solid (below 0 degree temperatures), and gas (when it
evaporates).
From the flat land
rise hills, mountains, and some can be so big and tall they can make men feel
really small. They are sometimes
covered with woods,
run down by all kinds of courses of water, and give home to so many different
animals. From their slopes
or tops one can
catch a glimpse of wide open spaces and valleys with no trace of man.
Wood is wood, grass
is grass, the earth is the earth. The harmony of nature is in its elements
individually considered as essential
parts of a whole.
I believe an
architecture, or an architectural event, should stem from meditations on
nature.