Between external and internal space : an urban transition

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to explore the evolution of both architecture and urban space, in terms of mutual relationship between solids and voids, with particular attention to two transitional moments of ancient and modern history: the Hellenistic and Baroque periods. This study is the result of the consideration that in certain periods, at least in western history, there is a clear predominance of either interior or exterior space in relation to architecture. If on one hand external space seems to predominate in Greek and modern architecture, interior space is prevalent between the Roman and the Renaissance periods. The hypothesis is that both the Hellenistic and Baroque periods represent intermediate phases in the historical transition between interior and exterior space and that this transition is manifested, through the transformations of the urban fabric, in the enclosed civic spaces of forums and squares. The methodological approach can be more easily described defining what this analysis is not meant to be: this examination is neither intended to be an urban theory nor a historical study. The intention is to interrelate theory and history, remaining distant from the necessary abstraction of urban design theory and, at the same time, avoiding the indispensable specificity and attention to details required by architecture history.