MOEBIUS N°1

Chapter 8 closes the selection of essays that constitute Moretti’s theoretical itinerary in this book. It does not refer to SPAZIO, like the previous ones, but instead refers to an extended interview published under the title ‘Ricerche matematiche in architettura e urbanistica’ (Mathematical Researches in Architecture and Urban Planning) that Moretti delivered in 1971 for the first issue of the journal MOEBIUS. The chapter opens with a translation from Italian to English of Moretti’s text. In this editorial, as the title suggests, Moretti outlines what has been his obsession since the 1940s. The relationship between mathematics and architecture, which would later lead to the discourse on parametric architecture, of which Moretti is the founder. Therefore, the entire theoretical path that structures the proposal of this book concludes by addressing the theme of the new horizons opened by this approach to contemporary design, re-reading and deepening it in a meta-historical key, defining a precise disciplinary boundary. Not as a mere derivative of the speculative use of specialised software or as pure formalism, but as a line of continuity and completion of a path that, by adopting the principles of functionalist modernism, has perhaps reached its full maturity over 70 years after Luigi Moretti’s intuition. The chapter is closed by the iconographic documentation containing the reproduction of the articles in their original graphic form, which provides valuable support for researchers all over the world.