SPAZIO N°7

The seventh chapter is entirely dedicated to SPAZIO n˚7 and the editorial by Moretti contained therein, titled ‘Structures and Sequences of Spaces.’ The chapter opens with a translation of Moretti’s text from Italian to English. In this editorial, Moretti investigates and critically develops the relationship between ‘space/body/movement/perception/form’ through a series of beautiful plaster models of the interior spaces of classical works of architecture. This editorial represents the ideal closure of Luigi Moretti’s theoretical itinerary. It lays the foundations of an accomplished theory of architecture that shifts from the classical model of the ‘composition’ of pictorial-sculptural matrix to the modern mode of ‘montage’ of cinematographic matrix, in which unity is obtained only after the intellectual synthesis of the perceived space-time sequences. From here on, Moretti will experiment and theorise explicitly on the need to use mathematics and the new potential offered by computers, reasoning explicitly in algorithms and parameters and consequently developing the first complete theory of parametric architecture. Within this framework of references, the translation of Moretti’s editorial will be followed by a critical commentary essay titled ‘From Geometric Composition to the Code of the Informal.’ The critical commentary, starting from the concept of Raumgestaltung (conformation of space), takes up and expands Moretti’s discourse by connecting the legacy of classical architecture and functionalist modernism towards their evolution in a contemporary key. The chapter is closed by the iconographic documentation containing the reproduction of the articles in their original layout, which provides valuable support for researchers all over the world.