From construction to "machine". Pieces of engineering vs engineering into pieces

The relationship between construction and machine is an interesting point of view to look at contemporary architectural and civil engineering works. These are nowadays hybrids of construction and machine, which is meant as a set of mechanical and electronic devices devoted to the monitoring of safety, climate control, energy saving, automation, information and communications technology. The mechanical and electronic equipment is nowadays inescapable, though it is likely to be considered not only a necessary condition but also a sufficient one. The relationship between the formal and technical issues of the construction and the technological aspects of the mechanization is dealt, starting from some meaningful moments through the theory and history of architecture: the relationship between aedificatio and machinatio in Vitruvius’ treatise; Le Corbusier’s machine à habiter; the mechanization era and hi-tech architecture. Nowadays the real or mystified constructive virtuosity and the mechanical and technological hypertrophy seem to be the main features of a research trend in architecture and civil engineering, and they turn into an exhibitionism that appears to be based on the concepts of fitness and smartness. When architecture shifts from construction to machine, its formal essence, by which it is capable to dialogue inside a complex relational system, fades, whereas its vulnerability towards obsolescence and its possibilities to become debris increase. Obsolescence is the closer and the more threatening, the more technologically innovative is the machine.