Per una scienza “probabile” del progetto di architettura

Abstract

For a science "probable" of the architectural design Emanuele Palazzotto The definition of the research work that has been developed by the PhD in Architectural Design of Palermo around the theme of "Restoration of the Modern" today offers us the opportunity to advance a broader reflection, pushing us in the field of epistemology of architectural design, starting by that definition of "science of project for the architecture of the artifact" that has characterized the work done in the last years. In this paper we are interested to investigate especially the premise of this research work, a premise that well describes the epistemological approach that supported the teaching and research methodology developed by PhD and that coincides with a broader reflection on the possibilities, limits, conditions and purposes of scientific knowledge in the disciplinary field of the architectural design. The hardness that is inherent in the term "science", that here is put in association with a discipline (the architectural design) which, by its nature, has always played a cultural role ambiguous, multiple, open, not easily classifiable, with large margins of freedom and interpretation, leads to a really particular conceptual and theoretical short-circuit. The "Science of the Project", in fact, can only be regarded as an empirical "inaccurate" science. Unlike the so-called "exact" sciences, in architectural design the outcome is never certain and, once obtained, it is not (or shouldn't be) exactly repeatable. Although this is a science "incorrect", in it there are anyway many steps, ranging paths so that you can reach a value of recognizable quality. So we may come to a conception of science of the architectural design"probable" according to wich, the reality is formed or is constructed on the basis of the "participation" of the subject, and that does not affect the fundamental value of the intuition. This concept defines, in architecture, the modalities of the relationship between "rationale" and "subjective element", between the theory and the making of architecture and it is very far from all those temptations of making an exclusive use of the data parameterization which, although useful in establishing a broad base of knowledge, we can not presume to conclude in them the complexity of the design processes.