ABSTRACT

Force to form e classical Greek concept of entasis introduces a calculated geometrical deformation of a column to achieve a particular eect: that of weightiness. e slight bow carved into the marble gives the eye the impression that the column is carrying load – or, according to other theories, compensates for the illusionary concavity that the eye perceives in a perfectly straight column. e use of entasis is perplexing because it falls outside the realm of function. e bowed column does not carry load more eciently or more eectively. It appears to be an instance of pure rhetoric, an optical device that suggests a physical and material process. It performs its role through a material theatricality. Neither a product of function or rationality, entasis is the imaging of tectonics – or rather the imaging of its eect. With the rise in accessibility of electronic circuitry and a more comprehensive understanding of environmental eects, architecture has lately become more concerned with the intangible – both as producers and transmitters of eects. We can re-describe the question of entasis as an instance in which a tangible (stone) is modied to suggest the presence of an intangible cause (force) or to counteract an intangible transmission (visual perception). To characterize architecture in this way suggests that there is a relationship between two types of things whose distinction is not physical vs. nonphysical but rather lies somewhere on a continuum between xed and uid, transmitted and transmitter, or, to borrow from media studies, “medium and content.” Building on McLuhan’s mantra, “the medium is the message,” where the medium of communication is reprioritized over the content, the four projects below actively work to recongure both medium and content, drawing them into a reciprocal relationship, where both are essential, necessary, and codependent. We understand both tangibles and intangibles as materials whose physical properties can be explored, understood, and exploited to varying eects. In the classical Greek column, one half of the equation (the tangible stone) is modied to compensate for the other half (the intangible force or perception). In the example of entasis, material as a medium is enlisted to broadcast its load-bearing function: the content. e four case studies below suggest a more active and reciprocal interaction between medium and content; in these works both sides are open to modication so long as it is understood that any changes made to one will necessarily aect the other.