Man is built

Daniele Longobardi - Naples, Italy, sunlight trapped in the dense network of the roof frame

1. Human body and physical world

Architecture translates effective urban development into reality, making it all and part of a huge scenography built piece by piece, brick by brick through a parallel path with our life. It can therefore be said that the environment we have created starts a close relationship with our body, just like this in fact, architecture also needs to reproduce, regenerate, rebuild itself and exactly like strands of our DNA, the buildings around us leave traces indelible in the ground, thus, the traces of an ancient Roman stadium, the stadium of the Emperor Diocletian they can become part of a large and beautiful square, today one of the most famous in the city of Rome, Piazza Navona, and a great city can reconfirm even more extensive by incorporating within itself the pre-existing urban fabric such as Beijing which houses the complex of buildings of the Forbidden City as a beating heart, the largest complex in the world or finally as the city of Istanbul located in a very important strategic position, a bridge between Europe and Asia, still reconfirms a fundamental role in recent years, generating a demographic explosion that has led to the incorporation of all the neighboring centers in the urban fabric of the city.

We therefore easily understand that architecture is part of the physical world, the greatest example of formal will, the greatest example of a trace left by man, the greatest example of life lived and how this necessarily carries with it the signs of time. Precisely for this reason, the reaction of an individual in contact with the built, generates immediate and unconscious impressions that are not the result of reflection or any rational process, but which inevitably become so through a process of sensorial automatism because they cannot be excluded from our living space, they are overwhelmingly part of it.

2. Reactions and will of man

Man wants architecture, he wants a refuge, he wants a cutout of space inside and outside his being and experiences what he creates directly by living it, he, through his thoughts can judge it after a few minutes, because he manages to quickly compare the structures built around him to the structures of his being.

Each created place, therefore, presents metaphysical aspects, aspects relating to the feelings and thoughts of the individual, in fact, in the designed space, the built will be immediately grasped, because the buildings represent a shell that shelters and at the same time coexists with nature like a shell egg is as fragile as it is eternal, an envelope to be protected because it was created by us, for us and must give us an idea of constant security, starting a universal process, simple but with continuous development and with nobles purposes, a reflection of our soul.

It is interesting to analyze, however, despite the first easy perceptions, that the individual finds it particularly difficult to describe a single building immediately and then tell it to another person will be even more complex, if not indissolubly connecting it to the other buildings in the context in fact, he will not be able to describe it without having carried out adequate reasoning, without an adequate analytical exercise, with a consequent urban narration, despite this being a physical object constantly present in the space near us and created for the sole purpose of satisfying our needs. It may be useful to compare the effect to that of a feeling, as this is in fact easy to perceive but difficult to describe because, like the sensations that are felt through these impulses of the soul, they are difficult to tell. In conclusion, the most metaphysical aspect in our reality is precisely what we grasp more easily, precisely our surroundings, the daily context, because it is complex to interpret.

Daniele Longobardi - Hamburg, Germany, the reflection of the roof frame on the glass facade of the building

3. The role of designers

In light of the above, one has to ask: How can a designer achieve the metaphysical aspect of architecture through his work? The answer is functional, that is, inherent in the functions of professionals. In fact, they have the task of generating solutions that respond to the required functions, in particular the role of imagining and subsequently realizing the link that generates that rapid relationship between the architectural space and the corporal space, bringing architecture to quickly enter circulation as an element simple and universal, easily applicable and therefore absolute reality.

By grasping this, those who design will satisfy not only the primary need to live but also that of giving a feeling of pleasure to be handed down from generation to generation.

The designer's task is, therefore, to wisely place these structures in space, through a metaphysical process that can start not only from previous experience but also cognitive and connected to environmental needs. All this leads to the repeated mixing of work, job, and design and finally to the realization that allows life, development, and the city.

Buildings are the starting point of all this, they are the elements that often become the protagonists of our stories, of our life, of our visits to the city, of our experiences. The designer reaches the metaphysical aspect of architecture by anticipating these stories with his imagination. He creates "constructed" characters as protagonists, who, like actors of the urban scene, must identify with the part to be interpreted, managing to adapt to the city context, creating pleasure in spectators and users, thus making architecture "eternal" because it is fixed for always in our minds, linked to memories, stable as a stronghold of society and absolute because if well done, it indiscriminately leads to generalized well-being.

Daniele Longobardi – (Turning Torso by Santiago Calatrava , Malmö, Sweden) , the actors of the urban scene

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AUTHOR

DANIELE LONGOBARDI

Daniele is an Italian architect and teacher of design and art history in high school. He has dedicated himself with passion to the historical research of art and architecture.