Excavating Frontispieces: Fossils, Ruins, Elements

Date

2023-07-21

Author

Sarıca, Sezin
Derebaşı, Bengisu

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As significant advancements of the early nineteenth century, geology and biology consolidated the archaeological research, which highlighted the studies on fragments as ruins and fossils. Georges Cuvier’s introduction in his book on geology “Theory of Earth”, reveals a conceptual resemblance to architectural antiquity. The frontispiece presents a thick earth formation with fragments as fossils that are to be “reconstructed”. The conception of fragment in Cuvier’s geological section in relation to architectural ruins of antiquity reveals an existing interaction between architecture and geology. By perceiving this interaction as one of the “foundations” for the development of architectural knowledge, we can review today’s interdisciplinary context of architectural learning practices. In this research, the frontispiece in Cuvier’s book will be considered as a retro- pretext to look back at the architectural definitions of “fragments” in earlier centuries. Within this framework, the presentation will focus on two frontispieces from Claude Perrault’s and Sebastiano Serlio’s seminal architecture books. The magical formation act with flying elements in the former, and a ruin-state depicting as-found fragments in the latter, will be re-interpreted through fossils to be “reconstructed” in the frontispiece of Cuvier’s book. This research aims to provide an interpretative re-reading through these three seemingly unrelated images. Understanding frontispieces as visual abstracts of books, two frontispieces will be presented as the architectural counterparts of Cuvier’s geological fossils: diagnostic architectural ruins and prognostic deconstructed elements. In this sense, re-reading the architectural fragment with references to frontispieces can be considered as a timeless contribution to architectural learning and making practices.

URI

https://yayinevi.yeditepe.edu.tr/architectural-studies-proceeding-book/
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/104999

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Department of Architecture, Conference / Seminar