Proto-architectures. From the Habitable Sculptures by Andre Bloc, to the Jinhua Structures by Herzog & de Meuron

Abstract

Standing between the plasticity of sculpture and the functionality of architecture, the habitable sculptures of André Bloc in France, and the Jinhua structures of Herzog & de Meuron, in China and Switzerland, can be identified as proto-architectures. Their intermediate nature shows a creative potential that, from its ambiguity, transcends the notion of scaled built models, turning them into incipient inhabitable spaces that condense generative systems for possible projects and future lines of research. A comparative analysis of these works is proposed, organized into four categories: origin, environment, construction, and scale; from which to verify this primitive condition, relating them as similar according to the common design strategies used in their development.