Una cinematica della soglia. Tecnica e modernità nella poetica di Eileen Gray

The fact that architecture can move and change its position, shifting its spatial composition in its whole or in some of its parts, is nowadays an unquestioned fact; and it is equally clear how variegated are the possible declinations of the theme, approached through different perspectives of exploration. Wanting to refer only to the substantial movement of the architectural components in their mechanical, physical and geometric dimensions it seemed necessary to look for another term to replace the wider, more generic one of movement: the decision to use the term kinematics is based on its etymology, which identifies the kinematic dimension as the geometry of movement. By assuming a historical-contextual point of view and keeping as a common denominator of the different kinematic possibilities the specificity of the situations in which they are accomplished, the thesis distinguishes the characteristics of the technological solutions belonging to the period of modernity. The intention is to recognise the kinematic element as a protagonist in the architectural debate of the last century. Questioning the definition and the possibilities of the movement of different architectural components, in function of the heterogeneity of the possible uses, the thesis aims to distinguish the consequences of the applications played on the relationship between what will be defined as elements of kinematic architecture: the components, understood as architectural mechanisms of transformation; the environment, place where spatial elasticity can be experienced; the interactions, moments of encounter between architecture and human beings, between architecture and nature. In a nutshell, the thesis reasons about the possibility of a kinematic architecture. To do so, the thesis proposes a reinterpretation of the architectural research conducted by Eileen Gray (1879-1976), an Irish designer active in early 20th-century France, starting from the hypothesis according to which kinematic elements constitute the common thread, the constant, of its entire architectural poetics. The thesis asks what role these components assume when, due to their movement, they enter into relation with the human environment; what consequences are realised when the surprising and unexpected orbits of movement invade the architectural space and, again, how these kinematics can be read when embedded at the threshold between interior and exterior. It is in these interactions that the thesis identifies the full realisable potential of kinematic architecture.