ABSTRACT

The Object of Architecture (ObA) is a physical entity and we have claimed that space is its semiotic aspect. The form of the object is the interphase between its physical matter and the soft, spatial information embedded in use and need. Architectural form is the border between space and matter. Iron, and later steel, became the dominant material in tools and weapons, but also in the construction of infrastructure, railways and in architecture. Baroque architecture demonstrated the application of modern mathematical calculus. In the dome of the Turin Cathedral Guarino Guarini for the first time used integral calculus to form the force-lines in the stone elements of the dome. One main architectural effect of electricity was that energy became almost non-local. Coal was heavy and difficult to transport. The iconic power of the tension exercises its power on hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, quite irrespective of what the architect might have intended.