A Expressão do Limite

Abstract

The Art, as a form of the human willingness and desire, allows the author to express through his piece of art an idea, a perspective of the world, a message. In the particular case of Architecture, that message has, as its main core and theme, the Human Existence, with its diverse forms and dimensions, and doesn't limit itself to represent it but it's created to serve it. The social, cultural and even economic revolutions altered the perception of Man's position in the universe as well as his belief in the Divine and in the hierarchical values in general. All this had a reflection on Architecture - The Expression - and it was, and still is, directly recognizable in the dominant programs, through the personal options, the raw materials and the technical devices used, which enable the creator to make a codification through the format of styles. From the moment when Man prevails as an individual being, the Architecture has to find an answer to the peculiarities which will unable to make a unitary reading of its object. Along the History, in its different ways of expression, Architecture has always defined itself as the creation of a controlled environmental space for the human activities. Essential for this construction is The Limit, as its significant. Referring to the Universe, the territory, the town, the property, the familiar group or even to the individual in itself, its existence is indispensable to guarantee Man's peaceful interaction/living with his environment and his fellow creatures. That need to create a limited, comfortable and safe space aroused from the the first forms of shelter, as a result of the appropriation of the natural constructions and, further on, of artificially created ones, and it went on its formal development in parallel with the mental and building evolution leading to the creation of sensorial shapes that surpassed the physical construction. The Limit assumes the role of mediating the particular universe built by the Architecture with the great Universe in which is inserted and, as a consequence, it's its property to communicate the relational intentions that the program implies - The Expression of the Limit. It's from its reading that one can build the first image of the construction - a part from the whole - and all the subsequent interactions depend on it. It can therefore present itself as a barrier, as a filter or, in its extreme expression, as an attempt to annihilate its own existence. Its importance as an element of frontier needs a special attention nowadays, because of the cult of the media in which the communication of the identity of the building has to be immediate and unequivocal.