Composition and Construction: the Unity of Architecture

Pavel Aleksandrovič Florenskij, during a lesson for his students at Vkhutemas in Moscow, stated: «We must start from the very concept of the work of art. The work in itself is a reality that overcomes itself, that is, it tells us and gives us more than what it is directly through the perception of the senses. On one hand, the work is subject to given laws that regulate what is represented, on the other hand it depends on other laws based on the fact that it represents something. In other words, general relationships, general schemes, general laws of organization of the work of art in itself exist but, at the same time, it is not extraneous also to other relationships, to schemes and laws that concern not the work, but what is represented in it. Consequently, it is twice a unit, the work. […] This duality, if expressed in a common language, represents the two moments of composition and construction» (Florenskij, 2001). Even if Florenskij is talking about art in general, two words strictly related to Architecture appear in his lecture: composition and construction that, following Florenskij, have to be a unity. This means that form and space are indissoluble in Architecture: the first cannot exist without the second and vice versa. Following these idea, the paper describes some drawings/projects, developed in the last year, that, in absence of function, have been representing a reflection about the language of Architecture in the relationship of composition and construction. The first is “Memento virus”, elaborated following an invitation to contribute, during the first lockdown, to the initiative Il cielo in trentatré stanze promoted by Federico Bilò and Riccardo Palma. The second is “Il muro nei muri”, elaborated for the exhibition L’opera d’arte nell’opera d’arte edited by Franco Purini and Enrico Ansaloni. The last one is “Ex inferis ad sidera” that celebrates the Divina Commedia in the 7th centenary of Dante’s death.