ABSTRACT
This paper aims to reflect on how tectonic approaches – read through the definition of the structure, its construction techniques and materials’ choice – can affect the architectural design solution. And how can architectural thinking persuade the building from its tectonics’ point of view? Mies van der Rohe and Alison and Peter Smithson are the architects who will give voice to this reflection. Confronting Lake Shore Drive with Robin Hood Gardens (multifamily housing) and Farnsworth House with Solar Pavillion (single family house), we’ll interpret their architectural language regarding the structural expression, focusing on its materials’ choices, construction techniques, and the relation with the surroundings (safeguarding the privacy issues). This way, we propose a methodology of analysis that aims to emphasize the effects of a tectonic approach in the practice of architecture, i.e. in a way which architectural design’s process and the tectonic design can benefit from each other.
