The generative approach in the Botta’s San Carlino

 

 

Prof. Nicoletta Sala  

Accademia di Architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana

Mendrisio, Switzerland

e-mail: nsala@arch.unisi.ch

 

Prof. Arch. Gabriele Cappellato

Accademia di Architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana

Mendrisio, Switzerland

e-mail: gcappellato@arch.unisi.ch

 

 

Abstract

 

The aim of this paper is to describe the origin of the wooden model of the San Carlino (1999) located in Lugano, and realized by the Swiss architect Mario Botta.

To introduce it, we will describe the Baroque style, the importance of the mathematics  in the Baroque architecture, and  the characteristics of the Borromini’s church named San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (1638-1641, Rome). After, we will explain the Botta’s wooden model conceived to commemorate Francesco Borromini (1599-1667). It  is an example of a new kind of monument.  The starting point for our investigation has been to consider the Baroque characteristics of  the Borromini’s project and the generative approach that Mario Botta has used to conceive and to plan the wooden model of the San Carlino. For example:

·        the metaphors,

·        the dialog of the context,

·        the territory of the memory,

·        the  fragment to describe an architectural work.   

Mario Botta using this approach in  his San Carlino has obtained a symbolic and unexpected home coming of  Francesco Borromini in his territory.

 

1. Introduction

 

The Baroque (1600-1750) was born in Italy, and adopted in Germany, Netherlands, France, and Spain [Schneider, 2001]. The term “Baroque” was probably derived from the Italian word “barocco”, which was a word used by the philosophers during the Middle Ages to describe a hindrance in a schematic logic. After, this have been used to describe  any contorted process of thought or complex idea. Another possible meaning derives by the Spanish “barrueco”, Portuguese form “barroco”, used to describe an imperfect or irregular shaped pearl. This word has survived in the jeweller’s term “Baroque pearl”.

Baroque was also associated with the Catholic art, but during the centuries it progressed and diffused its style into the Protestant countries. In fact, it is a style that expressed power and rigour, “the style of absolutism”. Baroque favoured higher volumes, exaggerates decorations, and colossal sculptures [Stella, 1987; Hersey, 1999; Careri, 2003].

The Baroque suggested movement in static works of art, and it influenced important  challenges in architecture [Harbison, 2000]. Baroque architecture was based on the mathematics [Hersey, 2000]. In the age of the Baroque, the architects and the patrons thought of the buildings as “studies in practical mathematics” (this is a phrase of the religious Virgilio Spada (1596-1662), that has realized the plan of the Chapel Spada) [Portoghesi, 1970; Magnuson, 1986; Hersey, 2000].

Guarino Guarini (1624-1683), in his posthumous book entitled Architettura Civile (1737), wrote in its  preface how “excellent a geometer Father Guarini was, how versed and profound in all part of mathematics, and especially the part that constitutes civil architecture” (“eccellente geometra fosse il Padre Guarini, e quanto versato e profondo in tutte le parti della Matematica e in questa spezialmente dell’Architettura Civile”) [Guarini, 1737].

George Hersey, professor of the history  of the art, affirms: “I said that in the age of the Baroque the people believed in hierarchies of number and form but some numbers were reliable and others were unreliable. For example Guarino Guarini affirmed: “Some proportions are effable, and can manifest themselves by [rational] numbers, for example the proportion of an inch to a foot, 1:12. But other proportions are ineffable and cannot be expressed in [rational] numbers, but are called irrationals, for example the side of a square with its diagonal, as proved by Euclid Book 12, Proportion 4[1]” [Hersey, 2000; p. 7].

Baroque architecture can be considered as a continuation of High Renaissance architecture, because it used the symmetry, and a kind of simple geometry combined with a greater aesthetic sense of smoothed surfaces.


Baroque architecture also used spirals, helixes and curves (for example, ovals, circles and ellipses) to realize smoothed shapes. Figure 1 shows an examples of Baroque decorations [Sala and Cappellato, 2003].

Figure 1 An example of Baroque decorations

 

One of the most important architectural projects was the rebuilding of the Basilica of San Pietro, which involved the architects of the Roman Baroque: Carlo Maderno (1566-1629), Francesco Borromini (1599-1667), Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), Carlo Fontana (1638-1714). The Baroque architecture could be analysed using a fractal point of view. Fractal geometry is a modern discovery of the science, that permits to describe irregular shapes. The most important fractal property is the self-similarity. A fractal object is self – similar if it has undergone a transformation whereby the dimensions of the structure were all modified by the same scaling factor. The new shape may be smaller, larger, translated, and/or rotated, but its shape remains similar [Sala and Cappellato, 2003]. Baroque architecture is self-similar; for example the self-similarity is present in the plans of some churches, as shown in the figure 2, which illustrates the plan of church of Saint Karl (1715-1737, Vienna) where the oval is repeated in three different scales.

 

 


 


Figure 2  The plan of the church of  Saint Karl (Vienna) shows some self-similar shape.

 

In this paper we will describe an example of Borromini’s church and its wooden model realized by the Swiss architect Mario Botta.

The paper is organized as follow: the section 2 describes the characteristics of the Borromini’s church San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. In the section 3 we present the wooden model of this church realized by Mario Botta.  The section 4 contains the conclusions and in the section 5 there are our references.

 

2. The church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (Rome)

 

The church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (also named San Carlino) was realized in Rome by Francesco Borromini. The project begun in 1638. The main facade, with three bays (shown in figure 3), is located in a narrow road, and the second facade, a little bay at the corner with its own tower, were designed after the interior was completed.

This small Baroque church is a part of a monastery, and it used the gigantic order enclosing a small order [Blunt and Erwee, 2003]. Observing the Borromini’s preliminary drawings (shown in figure 4) we can note that the church interior is organized upon two equilateral triangles sharing a common side with two circles inscribed within them. The two circles are combined to form an oval, describing the area of the dome [Hatch, 2002]. 

In the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, the longitudinal chapels are defined to form an oval, the oval plan is often met in the Baroque architecture, while the lateral chapels are marked out by the shared corners of the triangle. Borromini used the octagons, the Greek crosses and other shapes for the coffering of the dome of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. The figure 5 shows the lattice used to map a detail from Borromini’s dome coffers in San Carlo alle Fontane, and figure 6 illustrates the dome interior where the ends of each lozenge and of each rhombus are unequal, the upper half of each octagon is smaller than the lower half, and the top of the upright in each Greek cross is shorter than the bottom of the lower part of the cross’ upright [Hersey, 1999]. Observing figure 5, we can see the presence of two directional compressions, horizontal and vertical at the same time, over a (much shallower) dished plan. Borromini probably achieved the dome interior coffers using a particular technique. These compressions introduces a kind of self-similarity in the dome.

 


 



Figure 3 The main facade of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (Rome)

 


 Figure 4 San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome. Detail of the plan

 


 


Figure 4  The lattice used to map a detail in the Borromini’s dome [Hersey, 1999]


Figure 5 Dome, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome. The arrows connect the self-similar shape

 

George Hersey affirms: “The technique involved using a single-source light to project the shadow of a full-scale, ortholinear grid, made of ropes, onto the curved vault surface. Then the preparatory cartoon with its corresponding grid could be redrawn onto the vault, but obeying the projected co-ordinates that were now properly curved - swollen and contracted – by the vault’s curved surfaces. As the co-ordinates were curved, so then would be the figure drawings constructed from them. I assume that Borromini used the same projection system to map out his coffers at San Carlino. The method is described in a contemporaneous treatise.” [Hersey, 1999, p. 53].

 

3. The Botta’s San Carlino (Lugano)

 

To celebrate the 400 years after the birth of the Swiss architect Francesco Borromini, Mario Botta, with the collaboration of  Università della Svizzera Italiana, realized on the lake-front of Lugano the reconstruction, in real size, of the famous church San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane built in Rome by Borromini. This wooden model is allocated on a platform situated on the lake of Lugano.

The particularity of this masterpiece (33 meters high and 90 tons weight) is the construction with 35000 of wood boards of cm 4.5 in thickness with cm 1 space between the boards.

This is an audacious invention that proposes itself as architecture and set, as sculpture and installation. This wooden model represents an act of memory, the celebration of the birth of Francesco Borromini, using a reference the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, the first important work realized by Borromini.

There some differences between the real church and its model, in fact the real is whole, the model is in section. The church is in the urban tissue of Rome and  its model is situated on a platform on the lake of Lugano, that is encircled by mountains; the same mountains that Borromini observed in his one’s early youth. The model is seen devoid of its decorations, without its façade, and without its side chapels. In this way, we can describe the Botta’s work as a “building – representation” which permits “to observe” the Roman church and the territory that  contains it.

Botta affirms: “The project to reconstruct the San Carlino, was born in Lugano in 1999, to celebrate the 400 years after the birth of Francesco Borromini. The Museo Cantonale of Lugano, the Hertziana of Rome and the Albertina of Vienna agree on the commemoration on Borromini. When the organizers have called me to prepare an exhibition dedicated to Borromini, I have tackled the problem about the different rules of the cities of Lugano, Rome, and Vienna. Our unique opportunity was to consider that we had the history, the territory where Borromini lived his infancy. In this way, the celebrations dedicated to Borromini have been organized using different themes for different localities: Lugano hosted the years of the Borromini’s youth, Rome and Vienna his artistic productions”[Bellini and Minazzi, 1999; Botta and Cappellato, 1999; Papi et al., 2002; Sala and  Cappellato, 2003].

Botta read on the Carlo Dossi book entitled: Note Azzurre the following phrase: ”Il carattere dominante delle architetture è dato dal contesto che colpisce l’occhio dell’artista (The dominant character of the architectures is furnished by the context that strikes the artist’s eyes”.

Dossi’s consideration is important: it is the context that represents the architecture and it is not the architect’s personality, or his techniques. For example, Dossi affirmed that the architectures of the desert are influenced by the desert.

Mario Botta, using the Dossi’s point of view, decided to realize a reconstruction of a church of  Borromini directly on the lake of Lugano. In fact, the geographic configuration of the territory has not been modified in this four centuries.

Botta has chosen to realize the model of the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, because this is the first Borromini’s work that has furnished celebrity to this architect.

 Botta has conceived a provocative answer, that does not belong to the symbols but to the imaginary. In fact, he has realized a wooden model, using a cross-section,  separated by the urban context that has influenced the real church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. This characteristic suggests some  reflections on Dossi’s point of view.

The territory of the memory, used by Botta, represents the element of comparison that the architect uses to dialog with the project. The Botta’s San Carlino, located on the lake of Lugano, is an disquieting presence because it compares itself with the modern town of Lugano. The “past” is compared with the “present”, without prejudices, the melancholic shadow that reveals by the Baroque shapes is filtered by the contemporary language [Botta, 1999].

Botta’s San Carlino is an architectural work expressed using a fragment. The interrupted geometry of this wooden model obliges to a subjective interpretation [Botta, 1999].

We have studied the geometry  present in the real church and in the wooden model and we have found a kind of fractality. The fractal geometry is present in the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. A kind of self-similarity has been used by Borromini, and reproduced by Botta, in the shapes for the coffering of the dome. In our interpretation, the dome is like a fractal object, in fact it has undergone a transformation whereby the dimensions of the structure were all modified by the same scaling factor (see figures 5 and 8). The new shape may be smaller, larger, translated, and/or rotated, but its shape remains similar [Sala, 2003]

 


Figure 6 San Carlino (Lugano),  some Botta’s drawings

 

 


 


Figure 7 San Carlino (Lugano) the cross-section


Figure 8 The self-similarity presents in the Botta’s wooden model (rendering)


 

 

 


Figure 9 San Carlino (Lugano), frontal view

 

 

4. Conclusions

 

Francesco Borromini was a severe artist and a serious architect, at the same time, he took liberties with the classical system [Harbison, 2000]. Harbison affirms: ”He seems to thrive in awkward situations, cramming monumental façades into narrow streets. Like Bernini orchestrating his vast plain, Borromini also aimed at dramatic effects of movement, through compression not expansion” [Harbison, 2000, p. 2]. For example, the Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane is in agreement with the Harbison’s considerations.

The Botta’s San Carlino performs within an alien urban theatre, that imitates the life. It is the leading actor in the city and, at the same time, the great absentee from the city itself, since its reality is completely Roman [Saurwein, 2001, p.9]. This Botta’s project is provocative [Emery, 1999].

Mario Botta, with his wooden model of  San Carlino, has realized a modern reading of a Baroque work, and he has given to San Carlino a voice in the context and in the territory where Borromini had his one’s early youth.

 

5. References

 

Bellini R. and Minazzi F., Mario Botta per Borromini: il San Carlino sul lago di Lugano, Edizioni Agorà, Varese, 1999

Blunt A. and Erwee M., A Guide to Baroque Rome: The Churches,  Pallas Athene Publishers, London, 2003.

Botta M., Appunti sulla rappresentazione lignea del San Carlino a Lugano, Botta M. and Cappellato G. (eds.)  Borromini sul lago, Skira and Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, pp. 13-19, 1999.

Botta M. and Cappellato G. (a cura di)  Borromini sul lago, Skira and Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, 1999.

Careri G., Baroques, Princeton Univ Press, 2003.

Emery N., Volontà d’arte, Botta M. and Cappellato G. (a cura di)  Borromini sul lago, Skira and Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, pp. 39-43, 1999.

Guarini G., Architettura Civile, 1737 (reprint, Polifilo, Milan, 1968)

Harbison R., Reflections on Baroque, Reaktion Book, London, 2000.

Hatch J.C., The Science Behind Francesco Borromini’s Divine Geometry,  Nexus: Mathematics and Architecture IV, Kim Williams Book, Fucecchio, 2002.

Hersey G., The monumental impulse, The Mit Press,  London, 1999.

Hersey G., Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the Baroque, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2000.

Magnuson T., Rome in the Age of Bernini, Almquist and Wickell, Stockholm, 1986.

Papi F., von Moos S., Bellini R., and Minazzi F., Per un’architettura vivente, Centro di Documentazione, Accademia di Mendrisio, 2002.

Portoghesi P., Roma Barocca: the History of an Architectonic Culture, The MIT Press,  1970.

Sala N. and Cappellato G. Viaggio matematico nell’arte e nell’architettura, Franco Angeli, Milano, 2003.

Saurwein E. (eds), Notes on the wooden model of the San Carlino in Lugano by Mario Botta, Gabriele Capelli editore, Mendrisio, 2001.

Schneider Adams L., Key Monuments of the Baroque, Westview Press, 2001.

Stella J., Baroque Ornament and Designs , Dover Publications, 1987.



[1] The original phrase is: “Così comunemente, ed è manifesto, perché alcune proporzioni sono effabili, e si possono manifestare co’ numeri, come la proporzione di un’oncia con un piede, ch’è di uno a dodici  ma altre sono ineffabili, né col numero si possono manifestare, e però sono dette irrazionali, come del lato di un quadrato colla diagonale, perché come provo tratt.12 del nostro Euclide, prop.4, non ha alcuna corrispondenza di misura col medesimo”.