The interaction of poesis and tekne in tectonics

by Erbaugh, Adam

The term “tectonics” might be thought of solely as technical resolution. To use the word in only this sense is to rob it of a greater significance. Tectonics is derived from the Greek word for carpenter, tekton which is closely related to tekne, which connotes construction. Tekne, as knowledgeable assembly or construction, also encompasses the poetic sense of making, poesis. Man’s need to create is an effort to relate to his environment and to ponder his own origin. These two concepts, poesis and tekne are each enriched and to a degree defined by the other. Both concepts are addressed and executed in architecture the goal in tectonics is a sensible integration of the two, as they are inherently linked. Tectonics, as a practice of poetic and technical collaboration, is at very least worthy of consideration and in a larger sense it can encompass all that is necessary in design. God is in the details -Mies van der Rohe Euclid alone has seen beauty bare -Bertrand Russell An architect is a poet who speaks construction -August Perret