Methods Issues - Sergio Ferro

Method issues

To observe an architectural piece of work is not easy. The complexity and heterogeneity of its determinations resist to hasty syntheses. The tasks involved in developing an average building in France, for example, already makes us predict overlapped and strained relationships: control of the project, control of the construction site, implementation of the project, verification of the compliance with the requirements and work management. In general, these tasks are marked by divergent strategies and interests.

In a few words, the built world looks more like a precarious amalgamation of heterotopic forces than a cohesive "productive body". As in all studies of problematic fields, the key step is the one that decides the approach angle of their inaccurate complexity.

In our opinion, the position of traditional criticism and history no longer holds meaning if directed towards the built environment. Maybe the act of “constructing”, because it is so complex, cannot be described easily as the great classical theories. (*That is why they had to create a new method of research)

We have been working with nine categories and three subcategories:

The first three categories study the material within its specific determinations. At first we try to accurately characterize it, define what it is in a particular historical period, its production and distribution network (“the material in itself”). Then, it is essential to enumerate and describe their applications, uses and occurrences (“occurrences of the material”). Such occurrences, once catalogued, enable the development of hypotheses about the law/structure that controls them (“the legi-signs”). All three categories draw us a rational picture of the material in a given context. 

The following three categories help us to organize the analysis of the impact of external determinations on the material. The first category studies the representations that the material assumes according to the modes of conception ("icons"). Here, we use three subcategories: image, diagram and metaphor. The second category of this series is "trace" ("the Index"). Here, all existing traces of usage in the material relate. The skill and the state of productive forces and close relations of production are then examined – but mainly considering the way they are engraved in the material. The next category is "symbolic" and it deals with the consequences of employing the material, brought about by the symbolic values that are socially associated to it (valuations, fashion etc.).

The last series classifies the various forms of discourse that are made up about the material. The “vocabulary” lists words and typical expressions that refer to the material. The “slogans, recipes and regulations” is based on the usual procedures, empirical and partial knowledge, recommendations and regulations that relate to the material. Finally, the "arguments" brings together all the speeches, treatises, essays or poems that speak of the material.

This is the universe of reflection that concern and occupy us in the Dessin/Chantier Laboratory.