Detail as a glider: ethics and tactics in Architectural design

The lecture investigates the systemic and formative nature of architectural detail, highlighting its multifaceted ethical dimension and revealing its tactical potential in the whole process, especially in complex contexts. The first part of the lecture presents the idea that architecture can emerge as a systemic, multi-layered mutual irritation between a series of forms. In the second part, we explore the strategic role of detail in architecture through the lens of ethics, using the traditional categories of ethics of principles and ethics of responsibility. In the third part, we delve into the transformative potential of detail in architecture. Eventually, some examples of architectural details, concerning particularly awkward recent projects, will show how the detail’s systemic and synchronic tactical dimension in pursuing an ethics of formative responsive cohesion.