Thesis title: L'inizio della continuità. Archetipi ed ectipi in architettura
The thesis addresses one of those fundamental theoretical themes and nodes of research in the field of architectural composition, namely that of the efficient role of archetypes in architecture. In the first chapter “The beginning”, after a preliminary survey of the meaning of archetype – from semiotics to sociology, from analytical psychology to philosophy – the research focuses on the declination/reception of the concept of archetype sub specie architecturæ, collecting and summarizing the main positions of theorists (Ugo, Masiero, Capozzi), treatise writers (Vitruvius, Alberti, Quatremère, Semper, Kircher) and architects (Le Corbusier, Mies, Monestiroli, Grassi), regarding the topicality and significance of archetypes in relation to the continuous process of refoundation and inaugurating ‘beginning’ of forms, as well as of the deep, archetypal, underlying structures. The basic thesis, developed in the second chapter “Archetypes”, is that, following some hypotheses formulated by Vittorio Ugo and other scholars, there are axiological and structural relationships between natural archetypes, types and some corresponding ectypes, consisting of selected works in the historical thickness of architecture. The third chapter “Ectypes” is dedicated to the critical analysis of such ectypic exempla, identifying some fundamental types – classical temples/hypostyle halls, courtyard buildings/hall buildings, pyramids/towers – and their corresponding ectypes: the Parthenon in Athens; the hypostyle hall of Ramesses II in Karnak; the agora of Miletus; the Pantheon in Rome; the Pyramid of Cheops in Giza and the Etemenanki in Babylon. Finally, in the fourth chapter “Continuity”, in support and demonstration of the thesis on the permanence of the archetype in the continuity of architecture, through a process of comparative analogy, the paradigmatic exempla proposed in the third chapter are preceded by an equal number of corresponding and emblematic exempla found in the modern and contemporary, called into question and critically redesigned to demonstrate the continuity and persistence of the archetypal modelling structures, or rather of the schemata, in the emblematic works in the research of some masters – Boullée, Mies, Kahn / Vacchini, Monestiroli, Meda, Polesello, Rossi, Libera, Venezia – ultimately substantiating and demonstrating its a-temporal synchronicity, its compelling topicality and its substantial independence from historical evolution.