A Sensible Morphology
How can one speak about parts or wholes, without prioritizing one or the other but acknowledging their symbiotic relationship?
C.C. Piderit (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
S. Kousoulas – Mentor (TU Delft - Theory, Territories & Transitions)
G. Karvelas – Mentor (TU Delft - Teachers of Practice / AE+T)
R.R.J. van de Pas – Mentor (TU Delft - History, Form & Aesthetics)
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Abstract
The premise of this thesis is not to prescribe what architecture should do, but to explore how it might be thought and experienced. This inquiry focuses on an often overlooked minor art: the rural architecture of the Po Valley, materialized in the cascine – entities that, beyond their dwelling function, preserve the historical memory of a territory.
The concept of assemblage (agencement) developed by Deleuze and Guattari proves remarkably effective in analysing these heterogeneous structures. Far from being a theoretical imposition, this contemporary approach dialogues surprisingly with classical architectural treatises, which already described how different parts should relate to form a coherent body. These two strands of thought, although separated by centuries, converge in a vision of architecture as a system of relationships rather than a static object.
The multiplicities of events that animated the cascine find in Deleuzian thought a revelatory interpretive key, while their spatial organization recalls ancient architectural principles. In these deeply functional principles, a symbiotic relationship with the territory manifests itself, perfectly mirroring the notion of assemblage: not a simple aggregation of parts, but a continuous process of relationships between heterogeneous elements that maintain their identity while forming a coherent whole.
This perspective invites us to reconsider all architecture: are we not all bodies that maintain constant relationships? Every entity is composite, made of elements different in nature and quality that do not simply merge, but coexist in productive tension. What defines these bodies is not a presumed intrinsic unity but the relationships they establish with other bodies, places, and environments. Against the classical ideal of the one, contemporary philosophies propose a complex structure that does not presuppose an a priori unity, but recognizes and values the constitutive multiplicity of every phenomenon.
The thesis will methodically explore the various concepts that compose this vision of architecture as assemblage, tracing their meanings and interconnections. This is not merely a terminological exposition, but an investigation that, in illustrating these concepts, makes them operative – because understanding architecture means, ultimately, entering into a relationship with it.