The arch. Crisis and its form

Abstract

The arch, a favourite form of world architecture, is analysed in terms of its phenomenology, genesis and meanings. There is a thesis about the ambiguity of the arched structure, its initial criticality, which allows us to consider the arch as an architectural symbol of crisis. The popularity of the arch implies that architecture tends to signify states of crisis, to “play” with them, to give any crisis. . . an expressive form.