Architectural Creation—A Dichotomic Approach

The second chapter examines five instances of the conceptualisation of architecture as a creative process over time—between téchnē/ art and epistḗmē science, between theory and practice, between ars mechanica and ars liberalis, between scientific character and humanist spirit and, finally, between the real and the ideal. Understanding the profession of architecture between the limits of each of these five instances provides a firmer foundation for the perspectives highlighted in the first chapter, and supports the central idea of this study, namely the need to recover an integrated approach to architecture, capable of balancing the various dimensions that polarise it (technical, economic, sustainable, scientific, but also ethical, psychosomatic, symbolic, poetic).