Form and composition in architecture - a critical approach

The process of conception and composition resembles a chess game. Before the first move one has to make in the opening phase one must have thought thoroughly, because if it is not the “exact” move, if the move is not really “necessary” or if it is not aligned within a series of compatible rules and decisions dictated by “the game”, the game has to restart. The preliminary thinking process needs to fix the functional data and the formal intentions, both efficiently synthetized, it needs “to proclaim” the main idea of the approach. However, the inherent artistic talent of practicing architect may represent an obstacle to this reflexive attitude ... in a phase where the architect’s creative resources are focused and exalted. By drawing multiple alternatives, formal alternatives, one may discover his own still inconspicuous mental image, possibly clarified even by words, and these repeated and tested alternatives may conduct towards solution.

The architecture, as social art, it’s part of our urban landscape, without its addressee to have any choice in proofing it. The architecture thrives even by using the objective paradigms of the proposed program. That’s why one may consider that architecture can adopt methods of expression or formal composition rules specific to the environment/ensemble in which it has to enter into.