Ferraris M. Dictated Project (Preface to the “Theory of Architectural Design. From Drawings to Effects” by A. Armando & D. Durbiano)

Abstract

The article offers an overview of the documentality theory of the Italian philosopher M. Ferraris and a translation of an excerpt of his authorship from a book on the philosophy of architecture and architectural design of the practicing Italian specialists A. Armando and D. Durbiano. Applying the theory of documentary to art, and more precisely to architecture, the philosopher, firstly, considers works and projects as documents fixing the records of collective memory. Secondly, it asserts the tendency of an architectural project to fail as its essential characteristic, since the effects that the architect seeks to achieve are unpredictable. Also, designing in accordance with documentality theory does not mean embodying ideas in concrete exclusively on a two-dimensional surface, but rather creating effects in three-dimensional space with the help of architecture. The opposite is also true: in the process of learning, which is also a kind of documentary ritual, and the improvement of skills, the architect, creator, artist is included in the documentary dimension of his activities, which consists of institutional prejudices, the difficulties of bureaucratic reality, which predetermines and even limits the recipients in the design. The dichotomy that has opened leads to the question — should this be considered not only the cause of misunderstandings, but also the removal of the documentary dimension of the project as a symptom of a larger and more decisive removal, removal of technique? The author concludes that an architectural project does not embody, documents speculative intentions and ideas, but, on the contrary, is itself dictated, predestined, in many cases anticipating the idea, that is, an intention already built into the documentality dimension.