Paper

Tectonics & Stereotomy

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Abstract

In the last decade architectural education has embraced the exploration of tectonics without investigating stereotomy. Educators might have created a semantic pitfall regarding how to define tectonics in architecture. Perhaps tectonics is today perceived to be a technique, but the terminology is architecturally immersed, entangled, and complementary to stereotomy. Tectonics should be taught in relation to stereotomy as they both are fundamental to spatial thinking. Why is tectonics not discussed in relation to stereotomy? Is it because of modernism, factories and production lines, or the path that architects followed during and after the industrial revolution? Is spatial thinking in terms of stereotomy in decline? Has the relation of tectonics and stereotomy, first used by the German architect, art critic, and professor of architecture Gottfried Semper disappeared from architectural teaching, and in such case why has nobody noticed? In this paper the author argues that tectonics and stereotomy should be taught in conjunction and that emerging architects should be given the opportunity to elaborate on the differences of the two classifications. Tectonics and stereotomy can be explored building artifacts. The pedagogical question is ‘How can tectonics and stereotomy be taught in architectural education’ and the outcome is ‘A tower made of hundreds of sticks that balance and extrude from a plinth’. The architectural models presented in this paper are the results of a student exercise designed to develop an understanding of the concepts of tectonics and stereotomy in the creation of structures and the intersection of architectural spaces. This paper evaluates the outcome of this challenge given to second year architecture students. They were required to build towers using popsicle sticks, without using glue. The construction of a tower and plinth necessitated the examination of the relationship between tectonics, connections, stereotomy, carving and cavity, to form integral structural architecture.

Keywords: Tectonics, stereotomy, education, architecture, structure

How to Cite:

Schwaen, R., (2023) “Tectonics & Stereotomy”, Building Technology Educators’ Society 2023(1), 301-310. doi: https://doi.org/10.7275/btes.1967