The mountain shape in architecture: some cases in ephemeral baroque and postbaroque buildings

Abstract

This article analyzes forms inspired by the mountain in certain ephemeral Baroque and post-Baroque architecture. We distinguish two major categories: the "mountain-building" and the "building-mountain." The former is a building with an “architectural” interior and an exterior that could be the dream of an architecture unconstrained by simple geometric shapes. The latter is a building in which architectural order and the “disorder” of rock elements combine to create an exterior image aspiring to a complex compositional unity. In both cases, we observe the formal experimentation of the period aiming to incorporate the vocabulary of the amorphous and rocky—representing Nature—into the framework of ordered architecture, which represents Culture.