metamorphoses

Abstract

All have changed appearance. Men say a certain thing is born, if it takes a different form from what it had; and yet they say, that certain thing has died,
if it no longer keeps the self same shape.
Though distant things move near, and near things far, always the sum of all things is unchanged.

Publius Ovidius Naso. Metamorphoses. Book 15, lines 257-263 (Arthur Golding, Trans.)

Nothing disappears in the world, but only transforms from one form into another, exactly the same.

Mikhail Zhvanetsky

Changes in today’s world are happening with kaleidoscopic speed.

Since its inception, architecture has been perceived as a system of differentiated phenomena – styles, trends, traditions. Architecture has been divided into national and regional schools, and the history of architecture has been portrayed as a sequence of successive aesthetic complexes.

This discrete approach is increasingly being replaced by a continuous metamorphic approach, according to which architecture is more similar not to a mosaic of isolated fragments, but to a stream without clear boundaries, where everything changes and flows into each other. The paradigm shift does not happen easily. Authoritative architectural theorists are talking about a collapse of scientific architectural studies. Optimists are looking for support in related fields – psychology, history, sociology. Some are waiting for help from artificial intelligence or from spontaneous “bottom-up” creativity. As the metamorphic approach tells us, they all are right.

It can already be noted how fruitful metamorphic processes can be in the cross-fertilisation of different styles, but the dangers of blurring the boundaries are also evident. This issue contains contributions on several areas of architectural metamorphosis. As usual, we do not claim to fully disclose a complex topic. Our goal is to draw attention to the questions rather than to give exhaustive answers to them.