Concept keywords: Teaching, Mistakes, Attitude
The book “sopra gli errori degli architetti” written by Teofilo Gallaccini, it’s about architectural teachings for the benefit of students of this profession, and for all who are interested. Like a good teaching book, it’s very clear structured and has a logical composition. The book starts with everything that should be heeded before the actual building starts. And follows with advices chronological to the process of building.
As the title says it’s all about the mistakes of architects. The content is divided in three parts. The first examines the mistakes that can be made before starting, from the poor choice of sites and materials to misinterpretation of drawings. The second identifies the mistakes that are made during construction, from the bad proportion to the excesses in the ornaments introduced by the “modern architects”. Finally, the third highlights the errors caused by the poor construction of the technical installations and from the inadequate constructions of the roofs.
His concept of “decoracy” understood as beauty born of a “certain distributive justice, according to which one gives all that inconvenient, to each party” (Kap. II, S. II, Abb. 1) reveals his remarkable rationalism. So ornamentation must be part of this balance and excesses must be banned. Gallaccini reveals a seventeenth-century attitude linked to the baroque taste, when it is convinced of the need to correct the objective “rule” by means of illusionistic effects. Unlike the mannerists, for Gallaccini, illusionistic license is destined to create not a psychological tension, but a more complete agreement of the senses, to mask certain inadequacies of reason.