Notes for a Theory of Making in a Time of Necessity

Author(s): Giuseppe Zambonini

Source: Perspecta, Vol. 24 (1988), pp. 2-23
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of Perspecta.
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 Notes for a Theory of Making
in a Time of Necessity

Giuseppe Zambonini

"The Japanese word shokunin is defined by both Japanese and

Japanese-English dictionaries as 'craftsman' or 'artisan', but such a literal
description does not fully express the deeper meaning. The Japanese appren-
tice is taught that shokunin means not only having technical skill, but also
implies an attitude and social consciousness. These qualities are encompassed
in the word shokunin, but are seldom written down .... The shokunin dem-
onstrates knowledge of tools and skill with them, the ability to create beauty
and the capacity to work with incredible speed .... The shokunin has a
social obligation to work his best for the general welfare of the people. This
obligation is both spiritual and material, in that no matter what it is, if
'Toshio Odate, JAPANESE WOODWORKING
society requires it, the shokunin's responsibility is to fulfill the requirement."1
TOOLS: THEIR TRADITION, SPIRIT AND USE
(Newtown, Connecticut: The Taunton Press,
1984), p. viii.

The thesis to which these notes aspire is that every man-made

form - and in particular, every architectural form - does not exist solely as
static consequence to an otherwise irrelevant act of production, but con-
versely, that the nature of form is inlaid in the process of making.

Furthermore, it is here contended that issues of quality are

governed by the degree to which the materials and methods typical to the host
society are integrated together. Through their employment, the maker intends
to contribute to the traditions and common meanings of the collectivity in
which the production activity is nested, without renouncing technological
advance or personal expression.

Any activity of production involves the transformation of

matter for a purpose clearly defined somewhere between society and the
individual. The maker and the object to be created are tied together by an
intimate relationship which does not disappear at the conclusion of the pro-
duction process. This relationship can be described in different ways, in each
case inseparably connected to the nature of the production process itself.

In traditional artisanry, where the maker is singularly respon-

sible for an entire production process, the artist or craftsman is first con- 2. Palace of the Governor, Uxmal (c. 900).

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 Notes for a Theory of Making Giuseppe Zambonini

3. Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, 4. IUAV, detail.

Venice (1985), Carlo Scarpa, entrance elevation.

cerned with the embodiment of an idea through a unique materiality.

process requires the definition of an economical and efficient path of
tion. On this path the maker will confront two dilemmas - or, more p
two burdens - which, because of their consequences, are permeated
ity. Morality is here intended to identify a quality that goes beyond m
integrity and the business ethic. Morality is sustained by personal c
ultimately comes to bear on society as a whole.

The first burden concerns the identification of materials and

tools used in the process of transformation. The moral component must be

present here because the most significant properties of material can only be
discovered through a methodical investigation measured in years of pursuit.
The development of this knowledge requires observation, intuition and perse-
verance - attributes acquired in varying degrees by way of apprenticeship and
inherent sensitivity.

The second burden has to do with the relationship of the

artisan to the history of their trade. The artisan can be involved in similar
operations many times over, yet the object produced will not necessarily be the
same in each case. Each experience will be different, as new techniques and
processes will be tested and assessed in order to verify their relative utility. In
the end, however, the artisan will rarely re-invent the object in a complete
sense. The character of human artifacts comes from very far back. Each
artisan experiences them first of all in use, later through study and documen-
tation, and finally as they are brought into the production process. Although
centered on the individual, this process typifies a space/time cell of society's
evolution. The artisan's role in that society is epitomized by the object pro-
duced. That object - because it inevitably carries meaning - will contain all of
the advancements and contradictions manifested in the society of which it is a
product, speaking to the relationships among its members and, in turn, the
relationship of those individuals to the environment they occupy.

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 PERSPECTA 24

Here the moral responsibility of the artisan is two-fold: it deals

simultaneously with preservation and innovation. It is within the critical
interpretation of these two apparent opposites that the range and quality of
discussion applicable to the process of making occurs.

"That the hand must exhibit and reveal the inherent nature of
individuality as regards itsfate, is easily seenfrom thefact that after the
organ of speech it is the hand most of all by which a man actualizes and (1924),
5. The Constructor El Lissitsky.

manifests himself. It is the animated artificer of his fortune; we must say of

the hand that it is what man does, for in it as the effective organ of his self-
fulfillment he is there present as the animating soul; and since he is ultimately
and originally his ownfate, the hand will thus express this innate, inherent
nature. 2 2 G. W. F. Hegel, THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF
MIND (New York: Humanities Press, Inc.,
1977), rev. ed., translated by J. B. Baillie,
p. 342-3.

It is recognized that humanity had its start through labor and

that every display of evolution is dependent on this elementary activity which
characterizes our species as predominant over all others. At the same time,
humanity cannot exist outside a connective social structure which is itself a
human innovation. George Novack states in HUMANISM AND SOCIALISM that
"There is no difference between society and humankind .... The study of life
in society is identical with the study of the emergence and development of hu-
mankind, its making and remaking as a unique kind of life, the highest prod-
3 George Novack, HUMANISM AND SOCIALISM
uct of material organization on this planet." 3 (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1973), p. 13.

In modern times the physical and social sciences investigating

the emergence of life have been integrated: on the one hand chemistry and
biology, and on the other anthropology and human history. These disciplines
have supported a theory of Darwinian evolution that, in turn, provided the
means for Engels to set forth the "labor theory of human origins" in which the
activities and results of labor were deemed responsible for the conversion of
primates into humans. Novack elaborated upon this thesis by arguing that it
was not growth in brain size alone that precipitated the transformation of
primate to hominid. Rather, "the brain did not develop by itself, but in
connection with other organs and their activities. The most important of these
was the hand."4 Novack cites Washburn and Howell's contention that intelli- 4 Ibid., p. 17.

gence evolved significantly consequent to the use of tools, and that brain size
"increased three-fold subsequent to the use and manufacture of implements." 55 Ibid., p. 18.
The emancipated hand with its opposable thumb - together with stereoscopic
vision, upright posture, and the vocal organs - are seen by Novack as the pre-
conditions to the hand-eye-brain complex in the primordial evolution of

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 Notes for a Theory of Making Giuseppe Zambonini

culture. Returning to Engel's theory, Novack concludes by emphasizing that

"Labor is the first manifestation of human creativity. The transformation of the
primate into Homo is its first history-making result. The increasingly con-
scious and efficient practice of labor was the first step in the humanization of
the animal raw material, in what anthropologists call the acculturation of
6 Ibid., p. 24. humanity." 6

It is interesting to note that this process of acculturation

submitted the tool-making process to a critical choice. The discove
in the Near East around 3500 B.C. coincided with, and gave birth t
manufacture of implements, due to the particular suitability of bron
in tools. But, as John Keegan and Richard Holmes perceptively com
SOLDIERS: A HISTORY OF MEN IN BATTLE, because of its scarcity bronze
be used to win the greatest possible return upon its possession and
larger return was there to be won than by fashioning it into implem
gave the individual power over others? ... Weapon ownership conf
superior status, enjoined the acquisition of the highest skill in weapon
agement [and] tended to nurture a psychic relationship between ow
7 John Keegan and Richard Holmes,
SOLDIERS: A HISTORY OF MEN IN BATTLE
object ...."7 This points to the emergence of battle as an organized
(New York: Elisabeth Sifton Books/Viking and the division of society - in the simplest terms - between those w
Penquin, Inc., 1986), p. 22.
land and those stealing the harvest. The tool is the ambiguous prot
this process and one can see how scale, weight, and dynamics will p
change little when applied to the design and manufacturing of weapon

In the work of the Viennese artist Walter Pichler this am

of the object is quite subtly but also disturbingly represented. In the
piece sculpture Der Erste Vogel, Der Zweite Vogel, and Der Dritte
(1975-79), a bird departing for flight is captured in three frames, eac
mounted on a pole of wood. The scale and shape of the bronze figures
memory a range of implements from halberd to hoe. The bronze itsel
ished to an intense shine, suggests prolonged use, while the absence of
blemish alludes to the qualities of a superior alloy. The sharpness o
together with its aerodynamic shape, speaks of past and future rit

!' .

6. Der erste Vogel (1975), 7. Der zweite Vogel (1976), 8. Der dritte Vogel (1979), 9. Drei Vogel (1978-1982), drawing.
Walter Pichler. Walter Pichler. Walter Pichler.

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 PERSPECTA 24

provides the instruments with a life of their own. In another piece - the Grosse
Mahmachine (1980) - a common plow mounted on wheels is anchored to a
steel and concrete armored shield. In its stillness it assumes a threatening and
mysterious, almost military, identity.

Pichler's figures are born in the depth of his personal interpre-

tation of all our pasts, profoundly manifest in their archaic appearance. I
believe, however, that it is in their technical impeccability and obsessive
craftsmanship that they acquire an even greater substance and meaning.

"For technique may be interpreted in many various ways: as a 10. Grosse Mahmaschine (1980), Wlter Picher.
10. Grosse Mahmaschine (1980), Walter Pichler.
vitalforce, as a theory of mechanics, or as a mere convenience. In my own
case as an historian, I never regarded technique as the automatism of a
'craft,' nor as the curiosities, the recipes of a 'cuisine'; but instead as a whole
poetry of action, and ... as the means for the achievement of metamor-
phoses. It has always seemed to me that ... the observation of technical
phenomena not only guaranteed a certain controllable objectivity, but
afforded an entrance into the very heart of the problem .... The purpose of
the inquiries of a physicist or a biologist is the reconstruction of nature itself
by means of a technique controlled by experiment: a method less descriptive
than active, since it reconstructs an activity .... But in viewing technique as
a process and in trying to reconstruct it as such, we are given the opportunity
of going beyond surface phenomena and of seeing the significance of deeper
relationships. "8 8 Henri Focillon, THE LIFE OF FORMS IN ART
(New York: George Wittenborn & Sons, 1948),
rev. tr. by Charles Beecher Hogan and George
Kubler, p. 36.

Arrigo Rudi, an architect and lifetime collaborator of Carlo

Scarpa, has spoken at length about craftsmanship as it relates to our disci-
pline. Rudi believes that the conditions for a true craftsmanship are two: first
of all, that the artisan possess a certain creative insight, and secondly, that he
acquire and utilize a knowledge of the entire process in view of its goal.

In re-claiming creativity, the artisan calls back to his realm

the right of, and capacity for, judgment regarding necessary technological
advance - the ad hoc fabrication of jigs, for example, or the structural
modification of tools. Knowledge of the entire process, on the other hand, is
essential so that every minute choice involving materials and methods can be
bent, at the artisan's discretion, so to clearly and fully address the objectives
of production. It is superfluous to comment on how far from this proposed
status the artisans of today are operating.

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 Notes for a Theory of Making Giuseppe Zambonini

In every instance of making, when the concern for formal

integrity is at stake, we must recognize and operate within a relationship of
total inseparability governing material, the tools employed in its transforma-
tion, and the labor spent in the process. This is demanded by the specificity of
each act of making - the specificity of time and context that renders each
instance unique.

This relationship can be traced in detail through the work of

Carlo Scarpa. From Scarpa's contribution to the science of building we have
the opportunity to measure the importance of tradition in the process of
making. Scarpa has shown that invention is tied to a process where one must
interpret and extrapolate from established tradition. The recollections of
Scarpa's lifetime collaborator, Eugenio De Luigi, concerning his use of stucco
alla veneziana provide a means for understanding this process at a level of
great specificity, while simultaneously speaking of an almost paradigmatic
experience of making:

"When our work was to be done outside the Veneto region,

Scarpa always wanted to use the local sands. He was interested in the local
quality of things. When we travel to build, it is often very hard tofind our
materials locally though; with sand, for instance, it is possible to achieve
acceptable results using local sands, but most often we cannotfind a clean
local sand with the right granular consistency and color. The best sandfor
our purposes used to come from the banks of the Brenta River, yet now, for

11. Banea Popolare di Verona, Verona

(1973-78), Carlo Scarpa, plasterwork.

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 PERSPECTA 24

ecological reasons, the banks of the Po are the only places from which one is
allowed to take sand. Fortunately, from the Po we get an excellent clean
gray sand, with a variety of granular consistencies.

"To make 'stucco alla veneziana', technically speaking, an

'intonaco' isfirst applied to the wall. This layer is properly called the 'sotto-
fondo' and the best one, developed through long tradition, is made only of
'grassello di calce' (hydrated lime and sand). This technique has been either
forgotten by many craftsmen or is avoided by them, because of the intense
labor involved in pressing the 'calce' by hand onto the wall surface. Another
'sottofondo' is made with afinely crushed 'cotto', derivedfrom discarded or
broken clay bricks and roof tiles. 'Cotto' is excellentfor use in Venice because
it absorbs the humidityfrom the air and so no condensed water runs down
the stucco. Coarser sand is usedfor the 'sottofondo' and afiner sandfor the
finish coat. However, 'calce' must be in the 'sottofondo' to aid in the absorp-
tion of moisture. The 'calce' that goes on thefinish coat is as pure as pos-
sible, although it may contain some added color.

"This technique of mixture and application dates back toPopolare,

13. Banca the plasterwork.
Romans, asfragments of similar stucco have beenfound in Ercolano and
Pompeii. The Romans were mixing 'calce' with ground dirt and clay, but the
technique eventually evolved into the conception of the beautiful 'mar-
morino'. 'Marmorino' is obtained by mixing a marble powder with the 'calce'
and applied only to an 'intonaco' of 'cotto'. With its marble-like hardness, a
result of the intense pressure of hand application, and its shine, imparted
with a hot iron, 'marmorino' is both extremely resistant to moisture and
exceptionally beautiful.

"In our times many tradesmen use cement in the mixture of

the 'intonaco', even though we know that the cement will eventually interact
improperly with thefinalfinish of the work. For the same reasons of sup-
posed practicality, other tradesmen are using artificial stuccos, essentially
plastic derivatives. Thefinal calcefinish coat cannot even be applied to those
intonaci, nor will the color of the synthetic stucco change and improve with
age as the synthetic mixture is chemically composed to remain unchanged
and unaffected by time. Over time, calce either grows more beautiful in color
or it self-destructs because of defects in its application. Its value will always
increase, while the value of the synthetic stuccos will diminish over time. The
calce may be compared to a stone, which when newly quarried has a rigid,
dry quality, but which, over time, takes on a softer, more moist look, a
quality offantasy and beauty. The calce may pick up a crystalline brightness
or it may oxidate to a color of sea shels found on the shore. These are
all characteristics of the true material that cannot be created in any
9 From an interview with the author in Venice
other way. " 9
December, 1985.

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 Notes for a Theory of Making Giuseppe Zambonini

There are two values emerging through this account, presuma-

bly representative of the society in which they have found expression. By
allowing or setting up certain conditions for a work to be built, society is
inevitably manifest in the work itself. These two values may be referred to as
continuity and integration.

The word continuity speaks of relationships in time: the exten-

sion of the design process through the building process as we trace the birth of
an idea in the abstract through its two-dimensional shaping and finally to its
encounter with the materials and methods of building. This process draws
energy from our desire to see an idea physically realized, to see ourselves
reflected by the object. The true merits of that idea are not conclusively
revealed at the completion of building; it is only after some time that the idea
can be truly evaluated in the work. The process itself, however, begins with
drawing.

It is in the process of drawing that functional concerns are first

overtaken by the desire to express emotion. This can happen even if the object
is not physically realized; in this case the drawing appears as a survey of an
hypothetical found condition rather than the documentation of some intention
14. Reliquary, Project (1980), Giuseppe
to build. Such a drawing should be read in this way to preserve its utopian
Zambonini, photo montage of site. status in the cultural context it proposes.

/.. '.1;?
?2/ ~..'

16. Reliquary, section

10

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 PERSPECTA 24

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The design process reaches the apex of its potential te nsion c w

17 Museo Civico di Castelvecchio, Verona (1964), Carlo Searpa, Sacellum: drawing. 18. Museo Civico di Caste

with the development of construction drawings and the gradual definition of

details. Although details are typically represented through large scale ortho-
graphic and axonometric projections, on occasion informal sketches dealing
with critical aspects of material address more directly the eye and hand of the
craftsman. This was often the case in the relationships of Carlo Scarpa to his
tradesmen. These relationships were often so intense that Scarpa could rely on
the process of physical execution as an extrapolation of his intent - predict-
able to a point, but also boldly dependent on a manual tradition and dexterity
that Scarpa himself did not possess. In the exterior tilework for the Sacellum
facing the main courtyard at the Museum of Castelvecchio in Verona, Scarpa
sketched in color and to scale some of the possible combinations of tile and
stone that were to be variously placed in each quadrant of a square. This
system depends on the relative position of each quadrant and on the musical
recurrence of a few colors and textures. Scarpa determined the ideal composi-
tion visually with sketches, but the final choice of material quality was left to
the stonecutters themselves. The final result rests in their understanding of the
new object as an episode of both personal experience and shared tradition.

Continuity, too, identifies a creative behavior between the use

of design instruments and building implements that has its roots in memory
and its extreme opposite in imagination. It exists far beyond the limits of the
object and expresses the ancient role of the architect as homofaber.

In the design profession today, however, the construction

drawing basically marks the limit of the designer's responsibility in the process
of making. Despite the designer's customary obligation to oversee construction
of his work to completion, rarely does this supervisory experience in making

11

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 Notes for a Theory of Making Giuseppe Zambonini

find its way back to the drawings. The drive for maximum efficiency in tod
processes do not allow it. One may argue that prior knowledge of this process
should render such an effort unnecessary, but this contradicts a fundamenta
opportunity in making: the learning each time from a new condition, permit
ting one to enter each project with the attitude of a "beginner." This attitude
what makes possible a new learning condition, pushing forward the limits of
learning itself. Its application to the manufacture of the finished product to
sold is therefore the severing of the umbilical cord that ties the object to its
creator. It is here that one learns that the object is never totally finished; tha
it requires adjustment in time after it begins another life; that it must be us
and worn to reveal the inner qualities of its material components.

This notion of the aging of matter has its own importance in

light of its deep effect on the design process - not only in the selection of
materials, but in the way the product has been envisioned by the designer.
19. Studio, New York (1978), Andy
interior. A piece of furniture just completed or a house not yet occupied are at the
threshold of another life. Consequently, both their actual value as objects
their projected cultural value as catalyzers of the social environment rema
matters of speculation. One must see the original, shop-made prototypes of
Rietveld's Red-Blue and Zig-Zag chairs to appreciate how much the aging o
the objects has heightened the sensuality and manuality of their fabrication -
to the point of capturing the full spirit of their spatial discovery. To this
extent, continuity refers to a process that links together the various stages
of design, fabrication, and use in a continuum of transformation and
metamorphosis.

20. Red-Blie (hair (1919), (errit Rietveld. 21. Red-Blue Chair, construction elements.

12

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 PERSPECTA 24

Again, it is in the work of Carlo Scarpa that we see this process

most clearly. I believe Scarpa's work should be regarded as an expression of a
design and building process rather than a fully realized form; it is "incom-
plete" rather than "fragmented." The first concept addresses the issue of an
infinite joinery system, the finality of which is quite unknown - or at least
unpredictable. The second concept, on the other hand, addresses issues of
unity and relationships of parts within the whole. It has become common-place
to criticize Scarpa's work from the standpoint of unity because of its inherent
resistance to precise definition. Being incomplete, however, the work possesses
the basis for a renewed understanding of the future - if distant - completion it
portends.

In this sense, the phenomenon of "tension" belongs not so 22. IUAV, entrance courtyard.
much to the built object as it does to the state of mind of the creator. It ex-
presses the difference between a current standpoint (an historical quality) and
a future one (an ideological quality). Like the fluctuations in a controlled
reservoir, this tension is never fully realized or extinguished, but only dimin-
ishes and heightens in preparation for the next work - each work, in turn, re-
enacting the aspiration towards an ideal. Accepting the ideal as unreachable,
we pursue it only by personal choice.

To this extent, one must modestly accept that today the process
of making is so strewn with difficulties and problems beyond one's control that
all our work must be seen as incomplete: as a fascinating event, living an
existence of compromises, the product itself always representing the visible
survival of all that endured each negative force. The object is always incom-
plete; its complexity demands a process of understanding that must be de- 23. Fondazione Querini-Stampalia, Venice (1961-63),
Carlo Scarpa, detail.
ferred to the future user. This is the anxiety and the joy of the incomplete, of
the fragment in the larger universe over which no human has real control.

This understanding of continuity may be expanded to form a

model for interpreting our relationship to history, for guiding our work into a
future informed by the past. The idea of continuity does not apply to the
recuperation of styles belonging to a past time, but engages a more precise
attitude towards context. If one possesses the predisposition to observe and
analyze the myriad contextual conditions - both favorable and unfavorable -
present at any site so that they may be fed into the form-making process,
history will inevitably be felt as an active component in the work. By recogniz-
ing all such work as incomplete, both form and history can be understood to
be composed essentially of relationships in time and matter. At the same time it
is essential to accept fundamentally that organic and inorganic matter are
equally subject to life and death.

13

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 Notes for a. Theory of Making Giuseppe Zambonini

We should note that most built forms - when informed by local

geologic and material conditions along with society's traditions and the com-
munal trust - tend to preserve and reinforce their meaning in time and remain
as physical documents of the causes that created them. For example, in the
Parco dei Mostri in Bomarzo, volcanic rock - the soft and sensual peperino -
was carved by Turkish slaves around 1540 under the direction of the local
prince, Orsini. The park, actually a natural section of woods in a rural set-
ting, was the scene of pagan excesses. To today's visitor, who must patiently
discover innumerable carved figures, the park still offers the quality of a
fantastic voyage. Equally, at the Piazza del Palio in Siena, the initial engineer-
ing of a typical hilltown problem - the elimination of rainwater on the ground
- has given shape to a public space of religious and social pageantry. There,
the renowned annual horse race among representatives of each contrada takes
place within a space which is stage and audience simultaneously; orientation,
buildings, and pavement all point to the original necessity for physical sur-
vival of the built environment.

If one builds within an existing urban context, decisions

suspended between style and history constantly take place. To undertake, for
example, the transformation of a commercial cast-iron building into a complex
of residential units, is to confront not only problems of a typological nature,
but a whole range of contradictions and anomalies well beyond style. Continu-
ity here can only be regarded as a process of contextual re-generation; it can
survive neither the imitation of past forms nor the introduction of entirely
foreign objects in the attempt to contrast. All original conditions have left in

26. Piazza del- , c d .

26* Piazza del Palio, central drain. 24. Parco dei Mostri, Bomarzo (1540), entrance to cave.

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 PERSPECTA 24

favor of new ones, while the underlying nature of space and material remains
constant. In effect, one arrives at this project to begin where others left off,
bearing in mind the years of human activity that have taken place along with
the complex material changes brought about by age. In this way, we leave a
trace of our existence only through another thin layer of understanding
concerning the conflicts and contradictions of life; our activity can only
survive as a contextual expression in this perpetually metamorphosing, for-
ever unfinished work.

This belief is instrumental, in the work of our Atelier, in the

formulation of construction details with the purpose of joining the existing r' 'i: , :..f ?# , .,'......'ii /:f.~.:~i
space with newly introduced components. These details, which we call "third
pieces" or "skirts", create a dialectical juxtaposition of the two extremes.
California (X192-76i),
California (1972-76), Christo.
Christo.
Through either the use of a geometric syntax or through construction manipu-
lations, structural deviations of the existing conditions - such as a lack of
plumbness in walls or levelness of floors - are extracted and exhibited in the
space. The idea is to first radicalize the differences and second to establish
unity. The resulting forms in this process are unpredictable from project to
project and tend to reject preconceived configurations. In terms of process,
they are the result of a combination of a survey of the existing with the scale
representation of the new. With this technical tool the potential contained in
the duality surfaces and takes shape. The meanings arising from this process
are often positively ambiguous because of their complexity, since spatial
solutions are carried by materials, colors, and texture, and their reading often
depends on light conditions and the kinetic fruition of the space.

28. Loft on Worth St., New York (1982), The Open Atelier of Design, drawing.
28. oft on Worth St., New York (1982), The pen teler of Desin, drawing

29. Media Room, New York (1983), The Open At

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 Notes for a Theory of Making Giuseppe Zambonini

If continuity, then, refers to a unity in time - a set of relation-

ships to be seen in the life of artifacts and their inception - integration sug-
gests another kind of unity among the makers themselves, expressed at once in
their work. Integration is fundamentally opposed to the perceived necessity
for standardization and specialization - two forces of tremendous impact on
the production processes in today's economies. Here, the traditional succes-
sion of work by separate trades occurs at the expense of integration, allowing
isolated and often contradictory ambitions to overtake the essential scope,
purpose, and meaning of the work in question. A more integrated method of
production depends on the coming together of trades and artisans, each ca-
pable of applying different skills, while nonetheless maintaining an under-
standing of the whole to which the work aspires. This notion derives from the
second aspect of Arrigo Rudi's definition of craftsmanship: knowledge of the
entire process in view of its goal. In this way, such disparate trades as land-
scaping and roofing, for example, are joined together by a geometrical aware-
ness that brings about an essential unity in their execution.

A L..

a, view of roof. 31. Ottolenghi House, passage to roof.

Integration of the representational process i

experience of material itself is among the most diffi
does not already believe that material - in its struc
ties - precedes the transforming idea. This belief con
recent years whereby drawing has been given pre-e
process, leaving to distant executors all decisions co
the work. Such a process sanctifies the role of the de
images, while abdicating a truly creative function to

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 PERSPECTA 24

lawyers, and technicians. The consequences inherent in this process are both
problematic and unpredictable - as far as the future life of the building is
concerned. If one agrees, however, that the designer's job is to observe and
interpret these material properties, and to coordinate both their conception
and execution in the work itself, then knowledge of all phases and all compo-
nents of building becomes crucial. Such knowledge provides the basis for
every transformation proposed by the designer. Examples of this can be found
throughout the construction process as it reveals itself through detail: the
meeting of walls, roofs, beams, and the range of architectural elements.

32. House for Dr. Braunegger, Vienna (1981-82), Boris Podrecca,

33. Banca Popolare, exterior wall detail. 34. Banca Popolare, interior wall detail.
detail of roof drain.

This emphasis on the direct experience of material as opposed

to its abstract representation by way of some intermediate instrument - such
as through drawing - is not new. It is, in fact, the most common technique
used by sculptors and artists who, attracted by a strong sensual affinity to a
particular material, work with it until they understand a new process of
shaping - of physical or chemical transformation - previously overlooked. To
some the drawing is an art form itself, parallel to its three-dimensional mani-
festation; but to many others the drawing remains an organizing device, rarely
conveying the full meaning of the object it represents.

This identifies the difference between a process oriented

35. Furniture (1986), Forrest Myers, blued
fundamentally to material as opposed to ideas. The point here is not to deni- aluminum.

grate the role of ideas in any creative enterprise, but rather to focus attention
on the essences of objects themselves - on an object's capacity to carry mean-
ing embodied in its physical qualities, in its materiality.

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 Notes for a Theory of Making Giuseppe Zambonini

This argument clearly places material in a critical role in the

form-making process. But the issues pertaining to labor (understood here as
skills and attitudes) and tools (manufacturing and use) play equally important
roles parallel to those involving material. There is little point in trying to
extend one's understanding of material without support of the symbolic hand
holding the tool or directing the machine. This raises an essential question:
Must one experience manuality in order to produce works of quality? All
creators exhibiting beautiful and systematic conceptions of material - whether
produced with their own hands or not - have done so with full knowledge of
the processes of material transformation and the physical instruments neces-
sary to it. We know that such processes and implements are fundamentally
joined; neither one can occur nor be used without the other. It is true of our
times that few people have the opportunity to build with their own hands. It is
equally true, however, that there is little appreciation for this manual experi-
ence either in the design schools or the profession itself. The professional /
trade relationship rarely reaches deeply enough into individual capacity and
lacks an intimacy necessary to the effective integration of the design and pro-
duction processes.

36. Mary-John Chair, Bepi Fiori.

i
I

I
37. Mary-John Chair, construction drawing. 38. Mary-John Chair, detail.

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 PERSPECTA 24

Our objective remains to reach for the completion of the predicted

form, a form aspiring to a superior resolution of technical, historical, and sym-
bolic qualities. This may seem an ambitious goal for our times, when "market
forces" tend to alienate the meaning of objects in order to ease their consumption.
When we idealize form so as to project permanence, integration, and continuity,
we are resisting the thrust of the rapidly advancing economic world.

We are returned to the notion of tension at work in the artisan's

struggle - the tension felt in the pursuit of an ideal. It is clear that such ideals have
ethical and ideological qualities. These are not objective ideals, rigidly defined by
society, but evolving and shifting ideals, shaped by contradictions constantly
affecting our work routine. Form, today, should make visible the contradictions of
society: the continually evolving nature of experience and the effectively unreach-
able ideals to which we nonetheless aspire. This, again, is the anxiety and joy of
the incomplete.

"There is no human activityfrom which all intellectual interven-

tion can be excluded - homofaber cannot be separatedfrom homo sapiens ...
[E]very man, outside his own job, is a 'philosopher', an artist, a man of taste, he
shares a conception of the world, he has a conscious line of moral conduct, and so
contributes towards maintaining or changing a conception of the world, that is,
towards encouraging new modes of thought." 10 ' Antonio Gramsci, THE MODERN PRINCE
AND OTHER WRITINGS (New York: Interna-
tional Publishers, 1957), p. 121.

An architectural work has significant quality fundamentally as an

individual artifact. However, contemporary building practice has evolved to the
extent that this quality is no longer possible. The promise of the industrial revolu-
tion - that pre-manufactured, standardized building design solutions would allow
maximum research and invention - has not been realized. Standardization has not

brought significant quality, only higher profit, and the processes of standardiza-
tion result in both limited choice and a built-in obsolescence. In the long run, if
standardization is not directed to improve quality through greater initial invest-
ment and a subsequent capitalization on the experience gained by a constant
application, the results can only reveal the shortcuts in the standardizing process.
This, of course, was the argument made by the Bauhaus. Thus, it is no accident
for Paul Klee to state: "For quality to become a universal goal, it must be pro-
jected from the individual artist-creator to all mankind. It may then be shared
and become a common patrimony." Quality permeates form and in form each one
of the relationships which give it structure tends to reaffirm and reinforce the
single idea which form embodies. This is what creates meaning in a physical object
composed of solid and perceptually evident material components. This is why it is

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 Notes for a Theory of Making Giuseppe Zambonini

only in the use and transformation of materials that artists, architects and de-
signers have their chance of contributing to the universal status of quality.

In a society where the status of things is so strongly tied to

their appearance, quality is often associated with a single and distinct material
- for example, a precious metal in the construction of furniture. The absence
of that single material is often enough to precipitate the value of the whole
object - less of the material means less status of the object. Then we under-
stand that without that material the object cannot exist at all, its very essence
being so strongly tied to it. Gone the material, gone the idea. This is quite
different from saying that at times an idea can only exist in function of a
material, especially when that intimate relationship is indexed by an historical
or social tradition. For instance, Michael Baxandall, writing in PAINTING AND
EXPERIENCE IN FIFTEENTH CENTURY ITALY, reports that the legal contracts be-
tween patron and artist outlined not only the number, size and hierarchy of
figures, together with the size of the painting and the time of completion, but
also specified the quality of the crucial colors, such as blue, red and gold. For
instance, the color blue was used strictly to describe a precise figural role in
the composition. Thus, the color had to possess the highest possible level of
chroma and stability over time. Since ultramarine blue was obtained by
washing a ground lapis azuli, it was important to define the weight of the
ground material as the determining parameter of color quality." From the
" Michael Baxandall, PAINTING AND
EXPERIENCE IN FIFTEENTH CENTURY ITALY original stone, to the color powder, to the oil paint, to the definition of the
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), figure in the composition, there exists a straight line that points to the artistic
p. 1-23.
meaning of the work. The artist is not only the conceptual creator but also the
technician of the process and the guarantor of quality.

There is no question that in a majority of cases quality is still a

characteristic tied to the rarity, value or intrinsic beauty of a specific material
and to the harmonic symbiosis of the craft which transforms the materials
under the guidance of the artisan's vision. However, in view of the importance
of the status that is conferred by its association to quality as regarded in
today's society, it is also clear that today we must assign an ideological value to
quality. If we still believe that quality, in its growth as a "common patrimony"
of humankind, must be understood and attainable by all as well as be a cata-
lyst for improvement, we must recognize that today quality is used to distin-
guish class structure and to consolidate corporate identity, most especially by
the building industry. If quality has become merely an expression of superior
finances and corporate power, and if public administrations cannot afford the
sharing of quality with the citizens at large, we must begin to see quality as
possessing a politically conservative connotation.

In view of this, I would like to propose a definition of quality

adapted to the economies of today and based on information and understand-

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 PERSPECTA 24

ings available to the public. That is, quality cannot be an intrinsic condition
that belongs to the object anymore, but rather it must express the intent by
which it is created and therein the clarity and strength of the meaning being
produced by its form.

We must look not only at the quality of the material used and
at the craft employed, but also at the quality of the thought process selecting
and shaping the material. It is that process that will engage both user and
observer in an active, participating relationship with the work and thereby
give the work its meaning. The capability of the work to communicate its
process of conception overcomes and enhances the seeming limitations of
simple or poor materials.

If we examine the artistic work of Donald Judd, for instance,

the quality is not in the material, which is plywood, and not in the production
methods, though the methods of cutting the plywood have been perfected to an
exacting standard. The quality is projected by the sensual and perceptual
sensations produced by the finished work. Also, Judd's pine furniture is the
direct descendant of many De Stijl pieces in their disarming Cartesian simplic-
ity, absence of color and invisible joinery. In his furniture, use meets form
again with simplicity and eloquence. It is not form following function, but
form expressing use in a philosophical and deeply meditated way. It is an
expression of quality of the highest rank, a quality which does not need to rely
on any embellishment to exist. A single, standardized material, a single build-
39. Untitled (1987), Donald Judd.
ing process: the quality is in what the artist communicates.

-.-. .'. ?

'7E;:
:
.I .*""y
?(
;?'?
r
i-r?? q? --... .
--' .. -"
''
Y
?-?Cr
?I;LI?
??r* ??;; 1

* s?-L.U
:

40. Table and chairs, Marfa, Texas (1986), Donald Judd. 41. Desk set (1982), Donald Judd.

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 Notes for a Theory of Making Giuseppe Zambonini

In my own work, more often than not meaningful episodes

were created because of a clear understanding of a manufacturing condition
(as producing use and meaning) than out of more ambitious design intents and
larger budgets. This reflects the structuring of priorities so that a single and
powerful idea represents the object or the building and secondary accessory
ideas act as corollaries to support the clarity of the system. Mario Botta often
mentions this point as a determining factor in his ability to act as a builder; it
is by this determination that many of his buildings achieve a superb quality of
signage. Seeing his buildings, we begin to understand that the most difficult act
is to renounce the denotata of rich and powerful materials in the traditional
way, that one must instead accept a method of representation based on the
complex play of smaller-scale relationships held together by a tectonic text. It
is also here that the art of joinery, the master's way of producing convincing
details, can be used with optimal results, since it is in the conception of those
details that we fully express the meeting of our history, in our visual culture,
of all the meaningful events we have witnessed.

42. Banca Popolare, detail. 43. Banca Popolare, detail.

Carlo Scarpa used both methods to produce nearly universal

meanings in his work, although he is more commonly known for his use of rare
materials: cast bronze spouts, glass tiles, ebony, ivory and gold. Demanding a
craftsmanship based on centuries of experience, Scarpa's work - and his
poetic architectonic language capable of touching so many distant cultures -
establishes a unique reference for any use of materials. Though Scarpa was
able to produce such works, and his followers have been able to extrapolate
new works from his ideals, we must realize today that Scarpa's era is over and

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 PERSPECTA 24

cannot be prolonged. The art of our time must have the intention of producing
buildings of meaning with the utmost economy of means.

When, during a time marked by such extreme human

necessity, we witness the direction of resources towards the production of an
architecture that only deepens societal differences - pushing markets beyond
the reach of other social strata and demonstrating possession of means - the
pursuit of quality can have only revolutionary consequences.

44. IUAV, entrance courtyard.

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