Tectonics of montage: Architectural positions for a tectonic sustainable building practice

We build in accordance with specific contemporary conditions, defined by production methods, construction and materials as well as ethics, meaning and values. Exactly this relationship between the work as such and the conditions behind its coming into being is a crucial point. The simultaneity of both material aspects and cultural dimensions is an important condition behind conceiving and constructing architecture. Architecture is something built and it is built somewhere, and these two facts give it its architectural and cultural significance. The concept of 'tectonics' grasps this duality in architecture. The Italian architectural theorist, Marco Frascari describes the concepts 'construction' and 'construing' as inherent dimensions of tectonics, and according to him both dimensions have to be present in meaningful architecture. This close link between the creation of concrete solutions and the creation of meaning forms the core of tectonics. So tectonic thinking is not only about portraying a constructional logic. Tectonics is to create material realities that reveal narrative meaning. Tectonics is to construct with cultural references.