Tectonic Narratives

An Architectural Position

Samantha Druhot

Virginia Tech

Architecture is a technical art that answers questions of both experiential and constructive realities. In his essay “The TellTale-Detail,” Marco Frascari, an architect, theorist, and educator, writes about the union of these ideas of construction and construing. The act of construction in architecture is understood as the expression of craft or a “logos of techne.” Meanwhile, the construing, or “techne of logos,” is understood as the artful storytelling of one’s knowledge. He says, “any architectural element defined as detail is always a joint,” (Frascari, 231). The architectural joint is not just a means of communicating assembly but a tool by which a building can better tell its story at a variety of scales. To tend to the tectonic expression of the joint in a work of architecture is to better understand and communicate the work’s overall narrative and meaning.

Architectural historian and educator, Kenneth Frampton, also discusses the need for tectonic expression in architecture in both the essay “Rappel à l’Ordre: The Case for the Tectonic” and Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture. Similar to Frascari’s discussion of construction and construing, Frampton discusses the tectonic in terms of the ontological and the representational. The essence of the thing and the act of making the thing are inextricably linked. He says:

Needless to say, we are not alluding there to mechanical revelation of construction but rather to a potentially poetic manifestation of structure in the original Greek sense of poesis as an act of making and revealing [...] Thus one may assert that building is ontological rather than representational in character and that built form is a presence rather than something standing for an absence. In Martin Heidegger’s terminology we may think of it as a ‘thing’ rather than a ‘sign’. (Rappel à l'Ordre, 210-212)

Building is an inherently ontological act, therefore you cannot separate the construction from the construing, or the knowing from the making. As Frascari would say, architecture exists at the intersection of techne and logos. Tending to the tectonic is a “poetic” method of making and revealing, manifesting the truth of building. The articulation of the joint asserts the position of the architecture. The decision to reveal or conceal can enhance forms and assemblies that further an architectural narrative. Two examples of architecture that embrace the articulation of the joint, though in different ways, are The Loblolly House by KieranTimberlake and the M.H. de Young Museum by Herzog & de Meuron.

A treehouse of prebuilt modules set among loblolly pines at water's edge off the coast of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, the Loblolly House focuses on a “pairing of pragmatism and poetry,” through its joining of modern construction and primitive place (CooperHewitt). At a formal scale, wooden piles tectonically join the architecture to its place, physically rooting it in the ground and metaphorically continuing the forest–expressing and revealing the essence of the forest that surrounds it. As Frampton says, “through the concept of site and the principle of settlement, the environment becomes the essence of architectural production,” (Studies in Tectonic Culture, 8).

The concepts driving design decisions must be embodied by the tectonic assembly of the parts. The “poetics” of its construction, or the revealing of its making, is present in the detailing of the prefabricated aluminum frame. Choreographing this material joint for the aluminum frame to the wooden piles is important to tell the story of modern technology interfacing with the more primitive low-tech foundation. As Frascari says, “the joint, that is the fertile detail, is the place where both the construction and construing of architecture take place,” (Frascari, 241). The joints of the aluminum struts are left exposed on the interior allowing the individual parts and the narrative of the assembly process to be “construed” as modular units (KieranTimberlake).

The M.H. de Young Museum is also a tectonic manifestation of a greater narrative of site and place. Set in Golden Gate Park, the museum’s bold structure becomes as much a part of the exhibit as the art it houses. A copper panel facade veils the structure, allowing the gestural forms of the architecture to be construed as primary. The paneling perforations vary to achieve different filters of light while the panel joints are kept tight, maintaining uniformity in the skin. The copper panels were chosen with the intention that they would oxidize over time and fade into the surroundings of the park’s canopy (Perez). Carefully articulating the joints of the panels shows deep care and understanding of both concept and material. Kenneth Frampton says that tectonic expression, “also implies knowledge, in the sense that revealing what is latent within a work; that is to say it implies aletheia, or knowing in the sense of an ontological revealing [...] knowing and making are inextricably linked,” (Studies in Tectonic Culture, 23). The permeability of the building’s skin speaks not only to its physical surroundings but also to the conceptual desire to demonstrate the coexistence of many cultures in one place (Herzog & de Meuron). The architect’s attention to the joint proves the importance of a comprehensive understanding of both knowing and making in successfully telling the intended story.

Architecture must be regarded as a technical art, to confront the tectonic is to know and reveal the making of the ontological thing. Tectonic expression exemplifies the narrative capacity of a work of architecture, furthering the idea that architecture must be understood and practiced as both an art and a technical form. Frampton mentions the “Hermeneutical Circle,” a concept based on understanding the individual parts that make up the whole. He says, “the full tectonic potential of any building stems from its capacity to articulate both the poetic and the cognitive aspects of its substance,” (Studies in Tectonic Culture, 26). Articulating the joint at all scales achieves timelessness in construction, narrative, and place.

When Frascari’s ideas of techne and logos are separated, the poetry of a work of architecture is lost. One must be equally concerned with both the art and the technology of the joint. The joint becomes the expression of the built, revealing a larger narrative of structure, assembly, or place. In his essay “Digital Semper,” architect Bernard Cache says, “we come to architecture through technical arts,” (Cache, 379). It is through these tectonic expressions and technical decisions that each architectural joint tells a meaningful story. When a detail is treated as a tool for advancing a narrative instead of merely a technical solution, a unified totality is achieved. The Loblolly House and the M.H. de Young Museum both realize their respective architectural visions by embracing the reality of balancing modern construction with construing the timelessness of place, enriching narratives of the sites.

Works Cited

“Digital Semper” by Bernard Cache

“Rappel a l’Ordre: The Case for the Tectonic” by Kenneth Frampton

Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture by Kenneth Frampton

“The Tell-Tale-Detail” by Marco Frascari

“Why Design Now?: Loblolly House.” Video by CooperHewitt

“Unbolt, Detach, Reassemble” via KieranTimberlake

“M.H. De Young Museum / Herzog & De Meuron” via ArchDaily

“De Young Museum” via Herzog & de Meuron