An architecture of intervals
Fabio Candido, Castagneto Carducci, Italia.
In a book titled "L'intervallo perduto" (The Lost Interval), the italian art critic Gillo Dorfles expounds how Modernity has lost the perception - but not the necessity - of a valuable pause from the continuous stream of time and signs. Following Dorfles, it is necessary to recover the capability - or the awareness - to acquire a sense of distance which permits, on the one hand, the appearing of a more conscious creativity, on the other hand a critical meditation on the sense of things, up until the meanings of living.
The suspended condition of a virtuous detachment or moment of isolation, able to highlight some important parts of works of art or expression, is a constant in different ages and historical forms of art. In architecture this is demonstrated by the awareness of the transition between interior and exterior space - the threshold - as an interval between individual domain and community, but as well between internal space, with his psychological background, and the outer world. The garden, the enclosure, the belvedere, the protected space, are all settings for the manifestation of conscious rituals of life.
This long-standing awareness, deeply rooted in mediterranean architecture and in its more genuine interpreters, is constitutive of the work of Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas. It is possible to intend his architecture as a profound creation of intervals. The Nazrid Wall in Alto Albaicín is a work that allows this interpretation. The linear construction is surprisingly provided with a internal spatial character which can recall the thickness of history and appears full of atmosphere and sense of time. The inhabitable wall is an interval able to isolate the visitor, bringing him in the heart of physical matter. At the same time permits to him a merging in a timeless substance.
The space of interval has the capability to create a temporary distance while maintaining the presence of the landscape or the environment. This is the case of Homage Tower. The matter built with natural simplicity by Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas has the quality to be, while maintaining his physical presence, a measured sequence of intervals made of spatial compressions and decompressions, shadows and dim lights, bringing the visitor to the beautiful belvedere. Absorbed in the built landscape, but settled in a focused distance, we can concentrate on a intense and emotional experience and, following the subtle inspiration of Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas, in the end, comprehend some profound things.
---------------------------------índice--------------------------------