Swing is made of delicate musical movements on a constant rhythmic support, light and vibrant. The rigid pattern of tempo is diluted under the subtle variations which write the musical argument. Similarly, there is also an architecture which plays swing and likes to do it far away from the noise of the soloist, sheltered by the urban form. We discover this architecture in its aim to extend its gaze beyond the constructed limits, a way to build the city that still relies on the inductive reasoning rather than on the application of general principles. An urbanism that allows deformation and shocks, a perfectly irregular city.
We discover this swing in the five degrees of rotation of the Stockholm Library by E. G. Asplund - error or subtlety? It manifests itself in the subtle inflections of repetitive and sober K. Fisker housing blocks - standard or intent? It appears strongly at the Particolareggiato per l’area di corso del Popolo by M. Ridolfi and W. Frankl in Terni - delirium or formalism? We can find it in the ripples of the Bonjour Tristesse ghost.
“ ... To tear , to chip, to split, to cut ... “ wrote Richard Serra in his 1967 Verb list concerning the manipulation of urban form. Are these subtle deformations of urban architecture a strong argument in the definition of our cities? Once the swing discovered that silence was also music. Is not this silent architecture both a reflection and a model of the urban form?
