The art of discerning the orizon

The relationship between the forms found in nature and those of the city is one of the concerns that lie at the origin of the discipline of architecture. It is vital, however, that we now acknowledge the new modes of dwelling that revolutionized our understanding of this relationship during the 20t century.In modern culture, nature is no longer an other space that exists outside the city. And yet we have no option but to turn the contemporary city’s state of crisis into an opportunity for it to find a form. By taking this view, we can begin to consider these undefined places as nuclei from which transformation can arise, wherein to recast a theory of urban design that, by contrasting the amorphous, limitless nature of the urban sprawl, manages to re-establish a new sense of order.I believe this is one path to rediscovering the beauty of places, a concept that does not only refer to the appeal of the landscape, but also – especially – to the inevitable relationship that the character of the natural space establishes whit the architecture of the city. The drawings that accompany this piece elate to a concept for an urban space on the seafront in the city of Messina, a site whose geographical context is rich in mythical suggestion. The particularity of the setting was not lost on two f the area’s most famous sons, Antonello da Messina and Filippo Juvarra. The city’s aesthetic appeal lies in the complex relationship between the forms of nature and those of the built environment, in the interaction between these two system: the anthropic, urban landscape and the conformation of the natural space. This same relationship is also to the fore in the long cartographical and iconographical traditions that have lauded the beauty of the city. The topography that emerges in so many historic illustration of the city – with stone – built bastion at the mouths of the streams and rivers-gives rise to a vision of an imposing, visually impressive structure (a piazza and three towers, in this case), which would create the sense of a huge, seafront “palazzo”. It is a design that is emblematic of a rediscovered monumentality consonant in scale to the surrounding landscape, whose silhouette will impact decisively on the profile of the city. Rather than chase accolades for technical or technological bravura, this piazza and its towers seek to restore the complexity and richness of the urban structure