Reconsidering the Tectonic. On the sacred ambivalence of the tectonic in the light of Martin Heidegger and relevant theoretical studies on architecture

Abstract

Kenneth Frampton´s critical regionalist interpretation of the tectonic applies the 19th century terms of Karl Bötticher and Gottfried Semper to evaluate its role in initiating the architectural resistance, where it seems to hold a position without further cognitive prospects. Redirecting architecture essentially to philosophy, tectonics stands rather as it is given by the language and the natural use of structures or materials: in a sacral ambiguity presenting the ontological break between the frame and the cladding of a building. The revision of the Greek origin of the term reveals a Latin root as an alternative, which sheds light on the double meaning of the tectonic inherent in the architectural manifestation of Martin Heidegger´s fourfold comparable to the similar modalities of Semper as well as Christian Norberg-Schulz. Based on its poetic and ritual characteristic, contemporary sacred architecture provides significant examples for both the analysis and the understanding of the symbolic debate of immane nce opening up in the spatial occupation of the human being.