Skupaj znamo najbolje

Miha Dešman

Naslov razstave Skupaj znamo najbolje predpostavlja sestavljeno ekipo, ki zna bolje kot njeni posamezni protagonisti. Pri tem misli seveda na eni strani na arhitekte/ke in na drugi na inženirje/ke. Z odgovorom na vprašanji, kaj je arhitektura in kdo je arhitekt, se neprestano ukvarjamo in ne bi smeli imeti težav. Torej se najprej vprašam, kaj je inženirstvo? Kdo so inženirji/ke kot komplementarni del ekipe? Za kakšno ekipo gre?

Odgovor je zapleten in odvisen od konteksta, pa tudi od pozicije tistega, ki sprašuje. V času in prostoru so te pozicije različne, se hibridizirajo in pozicionirajo vedno znova. Tako je npr. v Nemčiji inženir tradicionalno pojmovan kot predstavnik svobodnega poklica, primerljiv z odvetnikom ali zdravnikom, medtem ko je v Franciji javni uslužbenec v državni hierarhiji, ki skrbi za javni interes, njegovo znanje pa temelji na matematiki. V Angliji je inženir skladno s pragmatizmom družbe usmerjen v reševanje konkretnih problemov, v Franciji pa je, kot rečeno, v ospredju enciklopedična konstrukcija znanja, njegove implementacije in poučevanja. Inženirji arhitekti, krajinski arhitekti in prostorski načrtovalci so pri nas povezani v ZAPS, drugi inženirji, ki sodelujejo pri načrtovanju in gradnji, pa v IZS. Skupna definicija, ki si jo delimo, bi bila, da gre za konceptno načrtovanje, in ne za fizično izvedbo. Bistvo inženirstva pri gradnji sta znanje in proces načrtovanja, preden se začne gradnja, ki določita, kako bo stavba zgrajena. To zahteva razumevanje procesov gradnje in funkcije stavbe, ko bo zgrajena – kako bo prevajala silo teže, vetra, potresov na temelje, kako bo ogrevana, hlajena, prezračevana, osvetljena, da bo zagotavljala udobje in varnost, kako bo odbijala in vpijala zvok, upravljala energijo in tako naprej.

V preambuli Kodeksa poklicne etike članov Inženirske zbornice Slovenije je zapisano: »Inženirji skrbijo za kvaliteto življenja in varujejo tako javni interes kot tudi interes posameznika. Inženirji nosijo odgovornost za delovanje različnih vsakodnevnih procesov, od enostavnih do zapletenih. S svojimi visoko strokovnimi storitvami in znanjem prispevajo k splošni blaginji, varstvu okolja, tehničnemu napredku in trajnostnemu razvoju ter s tem k izboljšanju življenjskih pogojev za sedanje in prihodnje generacije. Inženirji so promotorji tehnične kulture in napredka.« (1)

VArhitekturni politiki Slovenije (2)  je arhitekturna dejavnost opredeljena kot »intelektualna, kulturna, umetniška in poklicna dejavnost. Arhitekturna storitev je strokovna storitev, ki je hkrati kulturna in gospodarska.« Ker je po splošno uveljavljeni opredelitvi poklica arhitekt »odgovoren za oblikovno, tehnično, ekonomsko, finančno, okoljsko in socialno načrtovanje ureditev in gradenj«, je nujno zagotoviti strokovnost, kompetentnost in neodvisnost arhitekta.

Vrnimo se k vprašanju načrtovalske ekipe. Sestavljajo jo inženirke/ji različnih strok: arhitekture, gradbeništva, strojništva, elektrotehnike itd. Arhitekti so tisti, ki prevzamejo koordinacijo in odgovornost za celoto. Gradbeni inženir, statik, konstruktor z arhitektom sodeluje pri zasnovi konstrukcije in prevzema odgovornost za stabilnost, skladnost s predpisi in druge vidike konstrukcije. Podobno tehnolog, akustik, strojnik, elektroinženir in drugi inženirji projektanti, ki sodelujejo v procesu. Največji pomen in največji potencial za kreativno sodelovanje ima trdnost, ena od sestavin Vitruvijeve triade: firmitas (trdnost), utilitas (uporabnost) in venustas (lepota), ki povezuje arhitekturno oblikovanje in statično zasnovo.

Arhitekturna in inženirska zgodovina sta tesno povezani. Načrtovanje za prihodnost, ne glede na obdobje, ni zahtevalo le inženirskega znanja, ampak tudi zaupanje v to, da bodo predlagane rešitve izpolnile pričakovanja. Pri gradnji gotskih katedral je moral naročnik (škof, meščani, kralj) zaupati mojstru graditelju, da bo znal uskladiti tisoče delavcev, da bodo usklajeno izklesali kamne, postavili temelje, zgradili stene, stebre, loke in oboke, da bo katedrala po dolgotrajni gradnji, včasih je trajala stoletja, ne samo stala, zdržala sile teže, vetra in potresov, temveč tudi izražala transcendentalno idejo »nebeškega Jeruzalema«, metafore breztežnosti in svetlobe. Pomembna sposobnost pri načrtovanju je tudi način, kako zapisati/narisati načrt, ne samo zato, da bodo zamisel potrdili naročniki, temveč zato, da bo navodilo stotinam delavcev med izvedbo. Uporaba maket in risb sega nazaj v stari Egipt, šele v renesansi pa so se razvile tehnike za predstavitev kompleksnih trodimenzionalnih oblik. Ortogonalne projekcije (tloris, pogled, fasada, detajli v različnih merilih) pa so se postopoma razvijale še vse do konca 18. stoletja.

Razliko med arhitekturo in drugimi področji graditeljstva je mogoče prvič opaziti v antiki, ko se pojavi izraz arhi-tekton, vrhovni tesar, tisti, ki dela usmerja in vodi, fizično pa jih ne izvaja več. Torej tisti, ki pri gradnji zagotavlja vednost in s tem prevzame odgovornost za končni rezultat. V srednjem veku sta bila poklica inženir in arhitekt povezana v liku mojstra graditelja, ki je imel vodilno vlogo pri gradnji in je deloval v zidarskem cehu. Cehi so predstavljali najpomembnejšo poklicno, družbeno, versko in vojaško organizacijo srednjeveških mest. Na splošno velja, da se je prepoznavni lik arhitekta/inženirja prvič pojavil v renesansi, na stičišču dveh tradicij. Evropski renesančni arhitekt/inženir je bil dedič srednjeveške tradicije mojstrov gradbenikov in specialistov za bojne stroje ter na drugi strani antičnih idealov, posredovanih s pomočjo preživelih rimskih stavb in ruševin, pa tudi besedil, zlasti Vitruvijevih 10 knjig o arhitekturi. (3) Takrat se je uveljavil arhitekt/inženir kot individualni genij, umetnik, ki dela za kralje in kneze, tako kot njegovi kolegi slikarji in kiparji. Renesančni arhitekti/umetniki/inženirji so blesteli na različnih področjih, kot so slikarstvo, kiparstvo, glasba, vojaška in civilna arhitektura, pa tudi mehanično, hidravlično in gradbeno inženirstvo. Predvsem veliki in pomembni vojaški projekti, objekti in naprave so pripomogli k hitremu razvoju gradbenih disciplin.

Rojstvo arhitekta kot posebnega poklica v 15. stoletju sovpada s pojavom kapitala kot vodilne sile za vzpon mest, središč političnega in gospodarskega kopičenja moči. Ni naključje, da se je v mestih, kot so Firence, katerih bančno gospodarstvo je bilo eno najmočnejših v Evropi, razvil poklic arhitekta, kot ga poznamo danes. Gradnja kupole stolnice Santa Maria del Fiore v Firencah, pod vodstvom Filippa Brunelleschija, je bila mogoča, ker je obstajala elita, ki ga je pooblastila, da je kot izobražen na področjih arhitekture in inženirstva prevzel vodenje pri gradnji velikih javnih del. Leon Battista Alberti (4) je na podlagi teh okoliščin arhitekturo teoretično opredelil kot projekt, katerega disciplinarni cilj je utemeljitev poklica arhitekta kot humanističnega intelektualca, ki se jasno razlikuje od gradbenikov, katerih obrtniško znanje je bilo vse bolj razvrednoteno in podrejeno arhitektovemu načrtu in s tem mecenovemu naročilu.

Vodilno vlogo arhitekta sta krepila mojstrstvo v geometriji in poznavanje antične rimske arhitekture; ta je bila močan vir legitimnosti za pokrovitelje, ki so želeli svoji vladavini dati prepričljivo in »humanistično« podobo. Vendar sta bila geometrija in študij antike vira strokovnega znanja, ki sta si pogosto nasprotovala. Medtem ko je obvladovanje geometrije arhitektu omogočalo znanstveno in racionalno organizacijo procesa načrtovanja in gradnje, je študij antike zahteval prevzemanje oblik iz antičnih virov, ki jih je bilo pogosto težko vključiti v nove gradbene programe. Od renesanse naprej je postajal vse bolj očiten konflikt med arhitekturo kot znanostjo, katere cilj je optimizacija gradbenih postopkov v skladu z znanstvenimi in ekonomskimi merili, in arhitekturo kot obliko predstavljanja, katere cilj je utelešenje metafizične tradicije. V tem konfliktu je geometrija sama igrala ambivalentno vlogo, saj je bila disciplina, katere načela urejanja so imela tako kozmološki (in verski) pomen kot tudi analitično moč, zaradi katere je bila geometrija integrativni del razvoja tehnologije in znanosti, pa tudi skladna z univerzalno ekvivalenco, ki jo implicira logika blagovne menjave.

V drugi polovici 17. stoletja so velike države, kot je Francija, začele organizirati svoje vojaške inženirje v korpuse in s tem utrle pot za novo fazo razvoja inženirskih poklicev. Ustanavljale so se šole in poklicna združenja. Od petdesetih let 19. stoletja je inženirski poklic zaznamovala vse večja raznolikost, poleg državnih inženirjev so se pojavili tudi samostojni inženirji gradbene in drugih strok, zlasti strojništvo se je postopoma ločilo od gradbeništva, pozneje v 19. stoletju pa sta se pojavili še elektrotehnika in kemijsko inženirstvo.

Ta proces, ki se nadaljuje vse do danes, vključuje bogato inženirsko kulturo, šolanje, raziskovanje in neverjeten razvoj, ki je sledil razvoju znanosti in družbe.

Industrijska revolucija, razvoj znanosti ter kriza tradicionalnih krščanskih vrednot in družbe so spodbudile racionalistične ideje, ki so se kasneje, v 20. stoletju, izrazile v modernizmu. Inženirstvo je spet dobilo primat pred humanističnimi vidiki arhitekture. Takrat, v 19. stoletju, se je zdelo, da je mogoče na podlagi zgolj dveh načel razviti ustrezno arhitekturno obliko za vse možne naloge: to sta konstrukcija in funkcija. Ti dve načeli sta izraz osvoboditve arhitekture izpod domnevnega oklepa arhitekturne zgodovine in njenih slogovnih kanonov. Če nekoliko poenostavimo, bi lahko sklenili: za gradnjo se ni treba mukotrpno ukvarjati z arhitekturno zgodovino niti z estetiko, temveč lahko človek ustvarja novo arhitekturo ex nihilo, brez omejitev in predano le lastni domišljiji, če se le drži strogega razmerja med konstrukcijo in funkcijo.

Arhitekti modernizma so razvijali arhitekturno etiko in estetiko na podlagi razsvetljenske kulture napredka in liberalizma. V 19. stoletju sta osnove teorije modernizma začrtala Ruskin in nato Viollet-le-Duc. (5) Sledil je plaz moderne arhitekture, ki je v nekaj desetletjih spremenil svet. Philip C. Johnson in Henry-Russell Hitchcock ga v knjigi in na razstavi (6) poimenujeta mednarodni (internacionalni) slog. Definirata ga s tremi načeli: izražanje volumna namesto mase, dinamično ravnotežje namesto vnaprejšnje simetrije in izločitev ornamenta. V socializmu so se te ideje nekoliko drugače prilegale družbeni stvarnosti kot v kapitalističnem svetu, a modernizem je bil globalni pojav.

Modernistična teorija se je po drugi svetovni vojni razvijala v povezavi s tremi gibanji: novim brutalizmom, high-techom in neomodernizmom. Prvo je logično ponovno razširilo tako Ruskinovo kot Viollet-le-Ducovo skrb za iskreno in racionalno konstrukcijo in uporabo materialov, ki jo je uveljavila že modernistična teorija. High-tech je bil osredotočen na radikalne, z industrijskim designom inspirirane konstrukcijske in oblikovalske rešitve, ki naj bi slavile tehnologijo in njen estetski potencial. Neomodernizem dopušča, da en sam dejavnik načrtovanja ‒ estetski ali tehnični ‒ prevlada nad vsemi drugimi v procesu načrtovanja, kar običajno povzroči, da stavba dobi presenetljivo inovativno podobo. Povojni modernizem pa je razvijal tudi humanistično plat arhitekture.

Enaindvajseto stoletje je doba nezaustavljivega razvoja digitalizacije, ob tem pa tudi spoznanja, da je ideja o napredku vprašljiva na nov, usodnejši način. Zdi se, da je vprašanje, ali bo prihodnost boljša ali ne, zelo odprto, vsaj za večino človeštva. Poleg tega v današnjem nenehno razvijajočem se svetu digitalna revolucija radikalno spreminja inženirstvo in arhitekturo, tudi z obeti tehnologij, ki napovedujejo, da bodo spremenile svet, kot ga poznamo. Tu ne gre le za programe, ki jih uporabljamo pri načrtovanju in predstavitvah, gre tudi za internet in omrežja, podatkovne znanosti in umetno inteligenco, pa tudi za razvijanje algoritmičnega mišljenja kot osnove za razvijanje digitalne kompetence.

Vse od renesanse, ko sta se inženirstvo in arhitektura razdelila v ločeni disciplini, je v odnosu med njima vladala tekmovalnost in občasno celo sovražnost. Arhitekti in inženirji se imajo za načrtovalce, čeprav se opredelitev načrtovanja in pristopi, ki jih uporabljajo za njegovo uresničevanje, zelo razlikujejo. Vendar pa so zaradi njihovega medsebojnega delovanja nastale nekatere najbolj nepozabne, trajne in impresivne stavbe na svetu. V digitalni dobi je poklicne meje še težje razločiti. Eksplozija digitalnih tehnologij osvetljuje zapletenost in nelinearnost procesa, ki ga projektanti doživljajo vsak dan, hkrati pa močno širi zmožnost vizualizacije in predstavitve na eni ter analize njihovega konstrukcijsko-inženirskega delovanja na drugi strani. Tehnologija je očitno spremenila tako arhitekturo kot inženirstvo, s tem pa tudi možnosti interakcije.

Snovanje oblike (venustas) je v arhitekturi naloga in odgovornost arhitektk in arhitektov. Arhitekturnega načrtovanja pa ne gre obravnavati kot nasprotje ali tekmovanje med obliko, funkcijo in konstrukcijo, pač pa kot kreativno sintezo vseh treh vektorjev. Dobra konstrukcijska zasnova, ki izhaja iz logike in razumevanja poteka sil, upoštevanja geoloških in geomorfoloških danosti in akumuliranega znanja o konstrukcijah in materialih, sama po sebi ni dovolj, je pa nujni pogoj za dober rezultat. Potrebna je izvirna arhitekturna ideja, ki poveže oblikovno in tehnično rešitev v celoto na višji ravni. V arhitekturni teoriji se je v 19. stoletju uveljavil pojem tektonike. (7) Tektonike pri arhitekturnem konstruiranju ne smemo razumeti preprosto v instrumentalno-tehničnem pomenu, torej kot statično stabilno in ekonomično gradnjo. V arhitekturnem konstruiranju gre še za nekaj drugega kot le za ustrezno tehnično rešitev konstrukcije in strukture.

Arhitekturni teoretik in profesor Kenneth Frampton v eseju »Rappel à l'ordre: zagovor tektonike« predstavi tektonsko artikulacijo strukture in konstrukcije kot tisto temeljno načelo, ki ga moramo upoštevati v sodobni praksi projektiranja, če želimo nadaljevati arhitekturo. Specifični, arhitekturni način izdelovanja objektov je po Framptonu konstruiranje, in sicer tektonsko konstruiranje. Petra Čeferin v uvodni študiji zbornika Tektonika v arhitekturi natančno opredeli odnos med strukturo, konstrukcijo in tektoniko, ki skupaj tvorijo materialno osnovo arhitekture.(8)

Za zaključek citiram Hanifa Karo, inženirja konstruktorja in direktorja Adams Kara Taylor (AKT) (9) s sedežem v Londonu, ki je med vodilnimi na svojem področju, saj uspešno premošča ločnico med inženirstvom in arhitekturo. »Z našega vidika gre pri inženirskem projektiranju za to, da postaneš strokovnjak, ne pa da postaneš drugorazredni arhitekt,« pravi Kara in se zaveda meje med poklicema: »Trend, da inženirji postajajo arhitekti, je slab.«

1 http://arhiv.izs.si/fileadmin/dokumenti/pravilniki/Kodeks_poklicne_etike_IZS-sprejet_na_ skupini_IZS_15.6.2010.pdf
2 https://www.gov.si/teme/arhitekturna-politika/
3 Deset knjig O arhitekturi je v slovenščino prevedel prof. dr. Fedja Košir: Vitruvius Pollio, 2009. O arhitekturi. V Ljubljani: Fakulteta za arhitekturo.

4 Leon Battista Alberti, O umetnosti gradnje (De re aedificatoria, 1452), slov. prev. Alberti, L.B., 2007. O arhitekturi. Ljubljana: Studia humanitatis, prevod Tomaž Jurca.
5 Ruskin, J., 1849. The Seven Lamps of Architecture. Viollet-le-Duc, E. E., 1863–1872. Entretiens sur l'architecture.

6 Johnson, P. C., Hitchcock, H.-R..1932.; The International Style: Architecture Since 1922, New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
7 Čeferin, P., 2014. Tektonika v arhitekturi: Frampton Semper Bötticher. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU.

8 Ibidem.

9 https://www.akt-uk.com/

Together We Know Best

Miha Dešman

For its premise, the title of exhibition Together We Know Best posits a pre-assembled team which knows better than its individual protagonists. That is, architects on the one hand and engineers on the other. The answer to what architecture is and who is an architect is a perennial topic and shouldn't be difficult to provide. So I ask myself, first and foremost, what is engineering? And who are engineers as a complementary part of the team? And what is this team?

The answer is complicated and dependent both on the context and the position of whoever is asking. These positions differ in time and space, they continually hybridise and re-position. In Germany, an engineer is traditionally seen as a liberal profession akin to a solicitor or a doctor whereas in France, an engineer is a civil servant in the State hierarchy, whose task is protecting the public interest and whose knowledge is founded upon mathematics. In England, the society's pragmatism guides an engineer towards solving practical problems whereas in France, the emphasis is, as we've established, on the encyclopaedic structure of the knowledge, its implementation, and instruction. In Slovenia, architectural engineers, landscape architects, and spatial designers are associated in the Chamber of Architecture and Spatial Planning of Slovenia (ZAPS) while the other engineers who take part in design and construction processes are members of the Slovenian Chamber of Engineers (IZS). A common definition shared between the two parties pertains to conceptual design rather than physical execution. Engineering in construction is fundamentally about the knowledge and the designing process before the start of the construction, which defines how the building will be erected. This requires an insight into processes of building and functioning of a building once it is built how it is to transfer the force of mass, wind, and earthquakes to the foundations, how it will be heated, cooled, ventilated and lit in order to provide comfort and safety, how it will reflect and absorb sound, manage the energy, etc.

The preamble to the Code of Professional Ethics of the Members of the Slovenian Chamber of Engineers reads: "Engineers nurture the quality of life and protect both the public interest as well as the interest of the individual. Engineers bear the responsibility for the functioning of various everyday processes, from simple to complex. Their highly professional services and expertise contribute to the general well-being, environmental protection, technical advancement and sustainable development, and thus to the betterment of the living conditions of the current and future generations. Engineers are the promoters of technical culture and progress." (1)

In the Architectural Policy of the Republic of Slovenia, (2) architectural activity is defined as "an intellectual, cultural, artistic, and professional activity. An architectural service is a professional service that is both cultural and economic." Being that the architect according to the generally accepted definition of the profession is "responsible for visual, technical, economic, financial, environmental, and social design of layouts and buildings," it is essential to ensure the architect's professionalism, competence, and independence.

Let us return to the question of the design team. It comprises engineers specialised in various fields: architecture, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, etc. Architects are those who assume the co-ordination of and the responsibility for the whole. The civil engineer, the static engineer, and the construction engineer collaborate with the architect in the design of the construction and they bear the responsibility for the construction's stability, regulatory compliance, and other aspects. As do the technologist, the acoustician, the mechanical engineer, the electrical engineer, and other design engineers taking part in the process. The most important aspect, and the one with the greatest potential for creative collaboration, is strength, one of the elements belonging to Vitruvius's triad of firmitas (strength), utilitas (utility) in venustas (beauty), which connects the architectural design and the static design.

The histories of architecture and engineering have shared parallel paths. The planning for the future, regardless of the era, has not only required engineering expertise but also the trust in the proposed solutions' living up to the expectations. As Gothic cathedrals were being built, the investor (the bishop, the townspeople, the king) had to trust the master builder to be able to co-ordinate thousands of workers who would chisel the stones, lay the foundations, build the walls, columns, arches and vaults, all in a co-ordinated manner in order for the cathedral after a drawn-out building process, which sometimes took centuries not only stand and withstand the forces of mass, wind, and earthquakes, but also express the transcendental idea of "Heavenly Jerusalem", a metaphor of weightlessness and light. An important designing skill is also the manner in which a blueprint is written or drafted, not only for the investors to sign off on it but also for the hundreds of workers to be able to follow it during the execution. The use of models and drawings dates back to the Ancient Egypt, but it had taken until the Renaissance for the techniques of presenting complex three-dimensional shapes to develop. Orthographic projections (plan, section, elevation, details drawn to various scales) went on to develop gradually until the end of the 18th century.

The difference between architecture and other domains of construction becomes discernible for the first time in the Antiquity, which gave rise to the expression arkhi-téktōn, being the chief carpenter who acts as the manager and leader of the works but no longer physically carries them out. The person, therefore, who provides the expertise in the construction process and thus bears the responsibility for the end result. In the Middle Ages, the professions of the engineer and the architect were amalgamated in the persona of the master builder, who had a leading role in the construction and was active in the masons' guild. Guilds represented the most important professional, social, religious, and military organisation of Mediaeval towns. It is generally believed that the first recognisable figure of the architect/ engineer emerged in the Renaissance, at the confluence of two traditions. The European Renaissance architect/engineer was indebted to the Mediaeval tradition of master builders and war-machine specialists on the one hand, and to the ideals of the Antiquity, conveyed by means of surviving Roman buildings and ruins as well as texts, particularly Vitruvius's ten books on architecture, (3) on the other. Then, the architect/engineer established himself as a singular genius, an artist working for kings and princes, just like his colleagues, painters and sculptors. Renaissance architects/artists/engineers excelled in different fields: painting, sculpture, music, military and civilian architecture, as well as mechanical, hydraulic, and civil engineering. It was various massive and significant military projects, buildings, and devices which contributed to the rapid development of these disciplines.

The birth of the architect as a separate profession in the 15th century coincides with the emergence of capital as the primary force behind the rise of the cities as the centres of the political and economic concentration of power. It is no coincidence that it was cities such as Florence, whose banking economy was one of the strongest in Europe, where the profession of the architect such as it is known today had developed. Achievements like the construction of the dome of the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower in Florence, led by Filippo Brunelleschi, were made possible by the existence of an elite who granted him, as someone learned in the disciplines of architecture and engineering, the authority to assume the direction of building major public works. On the basis of these circumstances, Leon Battista Alberti (4)   theoretically established architecture as a project whose disciplinary goal is the establishment of the profession of the architect as a humanist intellectual clearly standing apart from builders, the latter's knowledge of the craft becoming increasingly devalued and subordinate to the architect's design and thus the patron's commission.

The leading role of the architect was further bolstered by the mastery of geometry and the knowledge of the architecture of Ancient Rome, which was a strong source of legitimacy in the eyes of the sponsors wishing to attach a convincing and "humanist" image to their rule. However, geometry and the study of the Antiquity were two sources of expert knowledge which often contradicted each other. While the mastery of geometry provided the architect with a means of scientific and rational organisation of the designing and building processes, the study of the Antiquity demanded the adoption of forms obtained from Antique sources, which often proved difficult to feature in the new building programmes. From the Renaissance onwards, the conflict between architecture as a science whose objective is the optimisation of building procedures according to scientific and economic criteria, and architecture as a form presentation whose objective is the embodiment of metaphysical tradition had been growing increasingly apparent. Geometry itself played an ambivalent role in this conflict, being the discipline whose principles of regulation possessed both a cosmological (and religious) significance as well as the analytical power on the strength of which geometry was included as an integrative constituent part of the development of technology and science, as well as being in consonance with the universal equivalency implied by the logic of barter economy.

In the 2nd half of the 17th century, large states such as France began to organise their military engineers into corps and thus led the way in the next phase of the development of engineering professions. From the 1850s onwards, the engineering profession has been marked by increasing diversity; independent engineers, both civil and belonging to other fields, began to appear alongside State engineers, mechanical engineering in particular gradually separated from civil engineering, while the latter part of the 19th century saw the emergence of electrical and chemical engineering. This process has continued to the present days and features a rich engineering culture, education, research, and incredible development which has kept pace with the development of science and the society.

The Industrial Revolution, the development of science, and the crisis of traditional Christian values and society spurred the proliferation rationalist ideas, which later, in the 20th century, expressed themselves through Modernism. Engineering regained its primacy over the humanist aspects of architecture. At that time, in the 19th century, it seemed that it takes no more than two principles i. e. the construction and the function to develop an appropriate architectural form for any number of requirements. These two principles meant that architecture could free itself from the supposed shackles of architectural history and its stylistic canons. Simplifying a bit, we could draw the following conclusion: in order to build, there is no need to put oneself through the drudgery of architectural history or aesthetics one can create new architecture ex nihilo, without restraints, subject only to one's own imagination, as long as one keeps to the strict relationship between the construction and the function.

The architects of Modernism were developing architectural ethics and aesthetics on the basis of the Enlightenment culture of progress and liberalism. In the 19th century, the fundaments of the theory of Modernism were laid first by Ruskin and then by Viollet-le-Duc. (5) What followed was a deluge of Modern architecture which changed the world within a few decades. In their book and exhibition (6) Philip C. Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock dubbed it the International style. They defined it by means of three principles: the expression of volume rather than mass, a dynamic balance instead of a pre-determined symmetry, and the expulsion of the ornament. In Socialist states, these notions meshed with the social reality in a slightly different way than in the Capitalist world, yet Modernism was a global phenomenon notwithstanding.

After World War 2, the Modernist theory continued to develop in relation to three movements: New Brutalism, High-Tech, and Neomodernism. The first one is a logical further expansion on Ruskin's and Viollet-le-Duc's concern for a honest and rational construction and the use of materials, previously expanded upon already by the Modernist theory. High-Tech was focused on radical constructional and design solutions inspired by industrial design; they were intended to celebrate technology and its aesthetic potential. Neomodernism allows for a single design factor an aesthetic one or a technical one to prevail over all the others present in the design process, which usually leads to the building's acquiring a startlingly innovative appearance. The post-war Modernism also furthered the humanist aspect of architecture.

The 21st century is the era of unrelenting development of digitalisation, accompanied by the realisation that the notion of progress has become dubious in a new, more fateful way. The question whether the future will be for the better or not seems to be left hanging, at least for the majority of humankind.

All the while, in the perpetually developing world of today, the digital revolution is radically transforming engineering and architecture. One of the ways is by heralding technologies which will conceivably change the world as we know it. This is about more than just software used for designing and presenting, it's also about the Internet and networks, data science and artificial intelligence, as well as about the development of algorithmic thinking as the foundation for the development of digital competency.

Ever since the Renaissance, when engineering and architecture split into separate disciplines, the relationship between the two has been pervaded by competitiveness and at times even hostility. Architects and engineers think of themselves as designers even though the definition of designing and the approaches used to realise it differ considerably. Yet owing to their reciprocal endeavours, some of the world's most unforgettable, enduring, and impressive buildings have been created. In the digital age, the professional boundaries are even more difficult to discern. The explosion of digital technologies brings awareness to the complexity and non-linearity of the process, which designers experience every day, yet it drastically expands the possibilities of visualisation and presentation on the one hand, and of the analyses of their constructional and engineering behaviour on the other. Clearly, technology transformed both architecture and engineering, and thus also the possibilities of the interaction.

In architecture, coming up with the form (venustas) is the domain and the responsibility of architects. Architectural design, however, is not to be regarded as an opposition or a competition between the form, the function, and the construction but as a creative synthesis of all these three vectors. A good constructional design, which derives from the logic and the understanding of force flows, from the accommodation of geological and geomorphological properties, and from the accumulated knowledge of constructions and materials, is not sufficient on its own, but it does constitute a necessary condition for a positive result. An original architectural idea is required to consolidate the form and the technical solution into a whole and elevate it to a higher level. In architectural theory, the notion of tectonics (7)   has gained ground in the 19th century. When it comes to architectural construction, tectonics is not to be understood merely in an instrumentally technical sense, i.e. as statically stable and economical building. There is more to architectural construction than a suitable technical solution to the construction and the structure.

In his essay "Rappel à l'ordre: A Case for the Tectonic", architectural theoretician and professor Kenneth Frampton presents the tectonic articulation of structure and construction as that fundamental principle which must be taken into account in the contemporary design practice if we are to carry on with architecture. According to Frampton, the specific, architectural manner of producing buildings is construction, specifically tectonic construction. In the introductory study to publication Tektonika v arhitekturi (Tectonics in architecture), Petra Čeferin precisely defines the relationship between structure, construction, and tectonics, which, together, form the material basis of architecture. (8)

In conclusion, I quote Hanif Kara, structural engineer and director of London-based Adams Kara Taylor(AKT), (9) a leading company in its field due to its successfully bridging the gap between engineering and architecture. "Design engineering, from our point of view, is about becoming an expert, not about becoming a second-rate architect," says Kara, acknowledging the line between the professions. "The trend of engineers becoming architects is a bad one."

1 http://arhiv.izs.si/fileadmin/dokumenti/pravilniki/Kodeks_poklicne_etike_IZS-sprejet_na_skupini_ IZS_15.6.2010.pdf (Slovene only)

2  https://www.gov.si/teme/arhitekturna-politika/ (Slovene only)

3  Vitruvius's The Ten Books on Architecture was translated into Slovene by Prof. Dr Fedja Košir and published by Ljubljana's Faculty of Architecture in 2009. 4  Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building (De re aedificatoria), 1452

5 Ruskin, J., 1849. The Seven Lamps of Architecture. Viollet-le-Duc, E. E., 1863–1872. Entretiens sur l'architecture.

6 Johnson, P. C., Hitchcock, H.-R..1932.; The International Style: Architecture Since 1922, New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

7 Čeferin, P., 2014. Tektonika v arhitekturi: Frampton Semper Bötticher. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU.

8 Ibidem.
9 https://www.akt-uk.com/