Windows into the Soul of Clorindo Testa’s Architecture: Inside, Outside

Abstract

The architect Clorindo Testa is known for his reflections on issues such as the relationship between large cities and living conditions in urban spaces. His artistic work and the art of systems are inseparable from architecture for him. This text reflects on the imprint that drawings have on his work, particularly his windows and perforated walls, which are the filters or intermediate spaces between architecture and territory, inside and outside. The drawings are then categorized. The drawing of the window is a sign of visual communication, and we could understand them as perforations. We examine in-depth formal drawings that establish a new architectural order. The following is a review of atmospheric drawings that evoke the city as a significant environment, where the exterior that surrounds the window moulds the interior landscapes that acquire a new meaning. The environment can be a language that captures, orders, and makes visible urban situations and the relationship of its architecture with them. The communication goes through drawings from different phases of Clorindo Testa’s work, trying to verify the correspondence with the resulting architecture.