form defining strategies

THE FULCRUM In this context, Danilo Kis’ notions of an Archimedean fulcrum emerge as highly evocative.

Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician, physicist and engineer, discovered the principle of buoyancy and provided the first rigorous explanation of leverage. The fulcrum is the point on which a lever rests or is supported and on which it pivots; a fulcrum may play an essential role in an activity or event. Thus, the fulcrum is the point around which a movement takes place, something happens. In architectural terms, one can say that the space of a certain movement is formed around it. If one were to describe it, it consists of a point and a line, and the mere outline of these forms the backbone for the pivotal movement.

The majority of the models presented in this book can be thought of as analogous to the Archimedean fulcrum. They form the backbone of a possible form – or, more correctly, possible forms. Around them and even through them, a continuous process of transformation can derive forms. These forms would correspond to the space that “the fulcrum” implicitly describes.