AFTERWORD
Today more than ever, architecture is a service that provides a vital space; it consists of an attempt to produce beauty, no less, through the greatest possible simplicity and at the lowest cost. Money matters here, so much so that the desire for money can generate revolutions that are cloaked in more poetic, yet less realistic goals. The trade that we uphold, not unlike that of medicine, literature, science, or masonry, takes on importance within a small sector where it is up to us to do whatever our means and circumstances allow or demand; in my opinion, simple and clear ideas will always turn out best- or at any rate, our capacity to express them more plainly and precisely. Art, science, and our everyday tasks compose a web that must be untangled. In what we find knotted there, each of us may, from our own perspective and with no moral or ideological imperative, discover the complex principles of physics and make them legible by revealing their intrinsic simplicity; one that we do not understand, but that can be seen plainly for the first time once its logic is found among the apparent chaos. The unseen is clarified and broadens our comprehension of a reality that is outlined objectively, measurably, numerically; something by no means opposed to the philosophical truth (one that proposes its own logic) but is rather complementary, in a complementariness that resides between the science and art, numbers and passion underlying our human condition. We live among coldness and precision, coexisting with beauty and the ineffable... I am terrified by the notion of a world without beauty. It is up to us to redeem beauty and attempt to discover it without Manicheism or ideologies. The universe is too vast to be reduced into collective stances or styles. Tribal affinities are inherent to people, but they take on a larger scale once they are integrated into an aspiration toward the universal. Evolution reduces borders.
Logic produces certainties in the rational field, and harmony in the emotional sphere. The logic of the Fibonacci series contains a numerical grace of a natural order that is purely aesthetic; I prefer a logical universe, as I find it tends to be more productive, in generous terms. Beneath the concept of entropy lies a logical principle that compels us to reconsider: if we are capable of using adequate resources and more efficient means of production, our caloric energy is reduced; we need to produce food, housing, and all that is necessary to subsist with the greatest possible quality and least amount of energy consumption. Comfort is a universal aspiration and not only a benefit destined for the so-called developed world. Indeed, I believe that culture is subject to this reality. Art opens up ideological and mental borders, but it also allows us to realize that it is only as broad as we deem it to be; the museums and temples dedicated to official and recognized art will no longer prevail as symbols of power and cultural imposition, and in our day-to-day existence, they will no longer possess an imposed and pre-assigned importance; technology has transformed cinema and music, and will continue to transform the true value of things. There are no fixed and static points. Culture is transformed every day and moves far more quickly than official bureaucracies and impositions. We are skeptical, because the freedom we have won compels us to think more and act under the logic of consistency, rather than that of imposition. (The law of gravity exists not only by decree, and despite the fact that a heavy object may crush us.) Official art is dissolving under the logic of its figureheads. Value and price have played a fine, yet fairly banal strategic role that many of us discovered and became skeptical of; hence we choose to believe in the nature of things rather than imposed artifice. Local cultures are reassessed for their attachment to their own nature and means. Above all, ideologies dissolve before an outpouring of intelligence and emotiveness, in harmony with our surroundings. Architecture is a simple task that brings us closer to art, but the era of geniuses, artists, and those touched by God is evolving into that of the simple artisan who exchanges hours of public.
MAA