The Bearable Lightness of the Limit in the Architecture of the Late Twentieth Century: Analysis of Four Cases

The aim of this paper is to conduct an analytical study of the concept of dissolution or void in the compositional use of the arts and, in particular, of the architecture of material dissolution in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. To do so, as a methodology, we use the latest currents of though that have justified positions and ways of putting this concept into value, such as analytical rationalism, phenomenology, and eastern philosophy. Thus, redefined to be applied to architecture by other theorists, it is possible to verify its influence and understand, as a result, that this resource has made its fortune in various emblematic works cited and characterized by four different paths: compactness, folding, dematerialization and fluidity. In all of them, the void is a link in the dissolution of an architectural form that is firmly defined, although in constant evolution. This void is usually expressed as transparent, but also as ambiguous, ethereal, interstitial, fluid, liquid, etc. We also analyze the resistance to this dissolution of form, whether it comes from tradition, the self-limitations of the artist or from the society for which he works, and the specificity of architecture. In conclusion, it is stated that the use of transparent materials is a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve evanescence. Our original contribution is to require, for that purpose, other mechanisms based on the adequate disposition of the architectural form.