Materia, sintaxis y diagramas

The interest in Matter is focused through its participation in architectural Form. In the PhD thesis Material Architectures the presence of Matter is embodied in the project’s premise; a fact attributed to the momentum of the “intellectual approach” to Matter, the main objective of the research. The body of the research is developed through seven works by Peter Zumthor that are addressed in three blocks: The Shelters (Chur and Kolumba), The Chapels (Saint Benedict and Bruder Klaus) and The Diaphragms (Luzi House, Vals and Bregenz). They have not been grouped chronologically or thematically, but rather in such a way as to provide the possibility of extracting ideas and concepts about the approaches. The thesis shows that, just like when we approach a place we do so on the basis of spatio-temporal parameters, similarly, when we approach Matter “intellectually”, we do so using other categories: Topology, Phenomenology and Physicality are revealed as the “coordinates of approach to Matter.”