The
generative approach in the Botta’s San Carlino
Prof.
Nicoletta Sala
Accademia di
Architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana
Mendrisio, Switzerland
e-mail: nsala@arch.unisi.ch
Prof. Arch.
Gabriele Cappellato
Accademia di
Architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana
Mendrisio, Switzerland
e-mail: gcappellato@arch.unisi.ch
Abstract
The
aim of this paper is to describe the origin of the wooden model of the San Carlino (1999) located in Lugano, and realized by the Swiss
architect Mario Botta.
To
introduce it, we will describe the Baroque style, the importance of the
mathematics in the Baroque
architecture, and the characteristics
of the Borromini’s church named San Carlo
alle Quattro Fontane (1638-1641, Rome). After, we will explain the Botta’s
wooden model conceived to commemorate Francesco Borromini (1599-1667). It is an example of a new kind of
monument. The starting point for our
investigation has been to consider the Baroque characteristics of the Borromini’s project and the generative
approach that Mario Botta has used to conceive and to plan the wooden model of
the San Carlino. For example:
·
the metaphors,
·
the dialog of the context,
·
the territory of the memory,
·
the
fragment to describe an architectural work.
Mario
Botta using this approach in his San
Carlino has obtained a symbolic and unexpected home coming of Francesco Borromini in his territory.
1.
Introduction
The
Baroque (1600-1750) was born in Italy, and adopted in Germany, Netherlands,
France, and Spain [Schneider, 2001]. The term “Baroque” was probably derived
from the Italian word “barocco”, which was a word used by the philosophers
during the Middle Ages to describe a hindrance in a schematic logic. After,
this have been used to describe any
contorted process of thought or complex idea. Another possible meaning derives
by the Spanish “barrueco”, Portuguese form “barroco”, used to describe an
imperfect or irregular shaped pearl. This word has survived in the jeweller’s
term “Baroque pearl”.
Baroque
was also associated with the Catholic art, but during the centuries it
progressed and diffused its style into the Protestant countries. In fact, it is
a style that expressed power and rigour, “the style of absolutism”. Baroque
favoured higher volumes, exaggerates decorations, and colossal sculptures
[Stella, 1987; Hersey, 1999; Careri, 2003].
The
Baroque suggested movement in static works of art, and it influenced
important challenges in architecture
[Harbison, 2000]. Baroque architecture was based on the mathematics [Hersey,
2000]. In the age of the Baroque, the architects and the patrons thought of the
buildings as “studies in practical mathematics” (this is a phrase of the religious
Virgilio Spada (1596-1662), that has realized the plan of the Chapel Spada)
[Portoghesi, 1970; Magnuson, 1986; Hersey, 2000].
Guarino
Guarini (1624-1683), in his posthumous book entitled Architettura Civile (1737), wrote in its preface how “excellent a geometer Father Guarini was, how versed
and profound in all part of mathematics, and especially the part that
constitutes civil architecture” (“eccellente geometra fosse il Padre Guarini, e
quanto versato e profondo in tutte le parti della Matematica e in questa
spezialmente dell’Architettura Civile”) [Guarini, 1737].
George
Hersey, professor of the history of the
art, affirms: “I said that in the age of the Baroque the people believed in
hierarchies of number and form but some numbers were reliable and others were
unreliable. For example Guarino Guarini affirmed: “Some proportions are
effable, and can manifest themselves by [rational] numbers, for example the
proportion of an inch to a foot, 1:12. But other proportions are ineffable and
cannot be expressed in [rational] numbers, but are called irrationals, for
example the side of a square with its diagonal, as proved by Euclid Book 12,
Proportion 4[1]” [Hersey,
2000; p. 7].
Baroque
architecture can be considered as a continuation of High Renaissance architecture,
because it used the symmetry, and a kind of simple geometry combined with a
greater aesthetic sense of smoothed surfaces.
Baroque architecture also used spirals, helixes and curves (for example,
ovals, circles and ellipses) to realize smoothed shapes. Figure 1 shows an
examples of Baroque decorations [Sala and Cappellato, 2003].
Figure 1 An example of Baroque decorations
One
of the most important architectural projects was the rebuilding of the Basilica
of San Pietro, which involved the architects of the Roman Baroque: Carlo
Maderno (1566-1629), Francesco Borromini (1599-1667), Gian Lorenzo Bernini
(1598-1680), Carlo Fontana (1638-1714). The Baroque architecture could be
analysed using a fractal point of view. Fractal geometry is a modern discovery
of the science, that permits to describe irregular shapes. The most important
fractal property is the self-similarity. A fractal object is self – similar if
it has undergone a transformation whereby the dimensions of the structure were
all modified by the same scaling factor. The new shape may be smaller, larger,
translated, and/or rotated, but its shape remains similar [Sala and Cappellato,
2003]. Baroque architecture is self-similar; for example the self-similarity is
present in the plans of some churches, as shown in the figure 2, which
illustrates the plan of church of Saint Karl (1715-1737, Vienna) where the oval
is repeated in three different scales.
Figure 2
The plan of the church of Saint
Karl (Vienna) shows some self-similar shape.
In
this paper we will describe an example of Borromini’s church and its wooden
model realized by the Swiss architect Mario Botta.
The
paper is organized as follow: the section 2 describes the characteristics of
the Borromini’s church San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. In the section 3 we
present the wooden model of this church realized by Mario Botta. The section 4 contains the conclusions and
in the section 5 there are our references.
2. The church of San Carlo
alle Quattro Fontane (Rome)
The
church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (also named San Carlino) was realized
in Rome by Francesco Borromini. The project begun in 1638. The main facade,
with three bays (shown in figure 3), is located in a narrow road, and the
second facade, a little bay at the corner with its own tower, were designed
after the interior was completed.
This
small Baroque church is a part of a monastery, and it used the gigantic order
enclosing a small order [Blunt and Erwee, 2003]. Observing the Borromini’s
preliminary drawings (shown in figure 4) we can note that the church interior
is organized upon two equilateral triangles sharing a common side with two
circles inscribed within them. The two circles are combined to form an oval,
describing the area of the dome [Hatch, 2002].
In
the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, the longitudinal chapels are
defined to form an oval, the oval plan is often met in the Baroque
architecture, while the lateral chapels are marked out by the shared corners of
the triangle. Borromini used the octagons, the Greek crosses and other shapes
for the coffering of the dome of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. The figure 5
shows the lattice used to map a detail from Borromini’s dome coffers in San
Carlo alle Fontane, and figure 6 illustrates the dome interior where the ends
of each lozenge and of each rhombus are unequal, the upper half of each octagon
is smaller than the lower half, and the top of the upright in each Greek cross
is shorter than the bottom of the lower part of the cross’ upright [Hersey, 1999].
Observing figure 5, we can see the presence of two directional compressions,
horizontal and vertical at the same time, over a (much shallower) dished plan.
Borromini probably achieved the dome interior coffers using a particular
technique. These compressions introduces a kind of self-similarity in the dome.
Figure 3 The main facade of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (Rome)
Figure 4 San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome. Detail of the plan
Figure 4
The lattice used to map a detail in the Borromini’s dome [Hersey, 1999]
Figure 5 Dome, San
Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome. The arrows connect the self-similar shape
George
Hersey affirms: “The technique involved using a single-source light to project
the shadow of a full-scale, ortholinear grid, made of ropes, onto the curved
vault surface. Then the preparatory cartoon with its corresponding grid could
be redrawn onto the vault, but obeying the projected co-ordinates that were now
properly curved - swollen and contracted – by the vault’s curved surfaces. As
the co-ordinates were curved, so then would be the figure drawings constructed
from them. I assume that Borromini used the same projection system to map out
his coffers at San Carlino. The method is described in a contemporaneous treatise.”
[Hersey, 1999, p. 53].
3. The Botta’s San Carlino (Lugano)
To celebrate the 400 years after the birth of the Swiss architect
Francesco Borromini, Mario Botta, with the collaboration of Università della Svizzera Italiana, realized
on the lake-front of Lugano the reconstruction, in real size, of the famous
church San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane built in Rome by Borromini. This wooden model is allocated on a platform situated on the lake of
Lugano.
The particularity of this masterpiece (33 meters high and 90 tons
weight) is the construction with 35000 of wood boards of cm 4.5 in thickness
with cm 1 space between the boards.
This is an audacious invention that proposes itself as architecture and
set, as sculpture and installation. This wooden model represents an act of
memory, the celebration of the birth of Francesco Borromini, using a reference
the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, the first important work realized
by Borromini.
There some differences between the real church and its model, in fact
the real is whole, the model is in section. The church is in the urban tissue
of Rome and its model is situated on a
platform on the lake of Lugano, that is encircled by mountains; the same
mountains that Borromini observed in his one’s early youth. The model is seen devoid of its decorations, without its façade, and
without its side chapels. In this way, we can
describe the Botta’s work as a “building – representation” which permits “to
observe” the Roman church and the territory that contains it.
Botta affirms: “The project to reconstruct the San Carlino, was born in
Lugano in 1999, to celebrate the 400 years after the birth of Francesco
Borromini. The Museo Cantonale of Lugano, the Hertziana of Rome and the
Albertina of Vienna agree on the commemoration on Borromini. When the
organizers have called me to prepare an exhibition dedicated to Borromini, I
have tackled the problem about the different rules of the cities of Lugano,
Rome, and Vienna. Our unique opportunity was to consider that we
had the history, the territory where Borromini lived his infancy. In this way,
the celebrations dedicated to Borromini have been organized using different
themes for different localities: Lugano hosted the years of the Borromini’s
youth, Rome and Vienna his artistic productions”[Bellini and Minazzi, 1999;
Botta and Cappellato, 1999; Papi et al., 2002; Sala and Cappellato, 2003].
Botta
read on the Carlo Dossi book entitled: Note
Azzurre the following phrase: ”Il carattere dominante delle architetture è
dato dal contesto che colpisce l’occhio dell’artista (The dominant character of
the architectures is furnished by the context that strikes the artist’s eyes”.
Dossi’s
consideration is important: it is the context that represents the architecture
and it is not the architect’s personality, or his techniques. For example,
Dossi affirmed that the architectures of the desert are influenced by the
desert.
Mario
Botta, using the Dossi’s point of view, decided to realize a reconstruction of
a church of Borromini directly on the
lake of Lugano. In fact, the geographic configuration of the territory has not
been modified in this four centuries.
Botta
has chosen to realize the model of the church of San Carlo alle Quattro
Fontane, because this is the first Borromini’s work that has furnished
celebrity to this architect.
Botta has
conceived a provocative answer, that does not belong to the symbols but to the
imaginary. In fact, he has realized a wooden model, using a cross-section, separated by the urban context that has
influenced the real church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. This
characteristic suggests some
reflections on Dossi’s point of view.
The
territory of the memory, used by Botta, represents the element of comparison
that the architect uses to dialog with the project. The Botta’s San Carlino,
located on the lake of Lugano, is an disquieting presence because it compares
itself with the modern town of Lugano. The “past” is compared with the
“present”, without prejudices, the melancholic shadow that reveals by the Baroque
shapes is filtered by the contemporary language [Botta, 1999].
Botta’s
San Carlino is an architectural work expressed using a fragment. The
interrupted geometry of this wooden model obliges to a subjective
interpretation [Botta, 1999].
We
have studied the geometry present in
the real church and in the wooden model and we have found a kind of fractality.
The fractal geometry is present in the church of San Carlo alle Quattro
Fontane. A kind of self-similarity has been used by Borromini, and reproduced
by Botta, in the shapes for the coffering of the dome. In our interpretation,
the dome is like a fractal object, in fact it has undergone a transformation
whereby the dimensions of the structure were all modified by the same scaling
factor (see figures 5 and 8). The new shape may be smaller, larger, translated,
and/or rotated, but its shape remains similar [Sala, 2003]
Figure 6 San Carlino (Lugano), some
Botta’s drawings
Figure 7 San Carlino (Lugano) the cross-section
Figure 8 The self-similarity presents in the
Botta’s wooden model (rendering)
Figure 9 San Carlino (Lugano), frontal view
4. Conclusions
Francesco
Borromini was a severe artist and a serious architect, at the same time, he
took liberties with the classical system [Harbison, 2000]. Harbison affirms:
”He seems to thrive in awkward situations, cramming monumental façades into
narrow streets. Like Bernini orchestrating his vast plain, Borromini also aimed
at dramatic effects of movement, through compression not expansion” [Harbison,
2000, p. 2]. For example, the Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane is in
agreement with the Harbison’s considerations.
The
Botta’s San Carlino performs within an alien urban theatre, that imitates the
life. It is the leading actor in the city and, at the same time, the great
absentee from the city itself, since its reality is completely Roman [Saurwein,
2001, p.9]. This Botta’s project is provocative [Emery, 1999].
Mario
Botta, with his wooden model of San
Carlino, has realized a modern reading of a Baroque work, and he has given to
San Carlino a voice in the context and in the territory where Borromini had his one’s early youth.
5. References
Bellini R. and Minazzi F., Mario Botta per Borromini: il San Carlino sul lago di Lugano, Edizioni
Agorà, Varese, 1999
Blunt
A. and Erwee M., A Guide to Baroque Rome:
The Churches, Pallas Athene
Publishers, London, 2003.
Botta M., Appunti sulla rappresentazione lignea del
San Carlino a Lugano, Botta M. and Cappellato G. (eds.) Borromini
sul lago, Skira and Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, pp. 13-19,
1999.
Botta M. and Cappellato G. (a cura di) Borromini
sul lago, Skira and Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, 1999.
Careri G., Baroques,
Princeton Univ Press, 2003.
Emery N., Volontà d’arte, Botta M. and Cappellato G.
(a cura di) Borromini sul lago, Skira and Accademia di Architettura di
Mendrisio, pp. 39-43, 1999.
Guarini G., Architettura
Civile, 1737 (reprint, Polifilo, Milan, 1968)
Harbison
R., Reflections on Baroque, Reaktion
Book, London, 2000.
Hatch
J.C., The Science Behind Francesco Borromini’s Divine Geometry, Nexus:
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Hersey
G., The monumental impulse, The Mit
Press, London, 1999.
Hersey
G., Architecture and Geometry in the Age
of the Baroque, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2000.
Magnuson
T., Rome in the Age of Bernini,
Almquist and Wickell, Stockholm, 1986.
Papi F., von Moos S., Bellini R., and Minazzi F., Per un’architettura vivente, Centro di
Documentazione, Accademia di Mendrisio, 2002.
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P., Roma Barocca: the History of an
Architectonic Culture, The MIT Press,
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Sala N. and Cappellato G. Viaggio matematico nell’arte e nell’architettura, Franco Angeli,
Milano, 2003.
Saurwein E. (eds), Notes on the wooden model of the San Carlino in Lugano by Mario Botta,
Gabriele Capelli editore, Mendrisio, 2001.
Schneider
Adams L., Key Monuments of the Baroque,
Westview Press, 2001.
Stella
J., Baroque Ornament and Designs ,
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