For much that has been built in the World, the presence of the ‘word’ Arch has been constant. The modern age, on the other hand, had progressively removed this ancient ‘word’ from current usage. New ‘words’, which referred to the machine age, were introduced. A deterministic letter on the phenomenon interpreted such substitution as a consequence of the introduction of new techniques of construction, made possible by the advent of the Industrial Revolution (concrete, iron and glass). But, despite this, the ‘word’ Arch still inhabits our imagination. It embodies archetypes that still move us today. According to Heidegger, ‘language is the house of the Being’,⁠^[1] so, its happening in time could reveal to us the hidden structure of that historicity that it makes possible. The ‘word’ Arch happens in the exercise of the psychological function of Sensation: that possibility of transfiguring the experience that we make in the World, through our body, in architecture. Modern architecture seemed to have lost this erotic-sacral discourse. Its forms appeared as consequences of logical thought, whose overvaluation inhibits all possible integral knowledge of reality.

Note

1. Martin Heidegger, Über den Humanismus, Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main, 1949; It. ed., Lettera sull’Umanismo, Adelphi, Milan, 1995.

Off Club

Rome, 13 September 2018

Arches evoke archaic rituals

Specus Corallii

Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, Trapani, 27 August 2016

Where the dead speak to the living

Min at the Soane

Soane’s Museum, London, 13 September 2014

Arch derives from the phallus

House of Dust

Rome, 16 April 2013

Arches disguise doors and cupboards

Arcade

Milan, 25 May 2012

Arches define a perspective

Postmodern Cafe

Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 6 September 2011

Graffiti refigure theme of arch

House for Wallpaper*

Neues Museum, Berlin, 6 April 2009

The empty heart

Vaulted House

Parma, 1 January 2008

A cement lunetta

Let There Be More Light

Università di Palermo, Trapani, 25 March 2002

An indefinable veil