Thougths and Notes

Text and photos: Gábor U. Nagy

Liveliness is an essential constituent of tradition. Architectural tradition is a kind of the realizations of life and lifestyle in a certain place. However, it is not only a representation of it but also a follow-up. This dual nature features every single constituent of tradition. Vernacular architecture is also live and lively – just like a snail growing its shell from inside. The building embodies and represents the form in materials – wood, stone, brick among others – whilst also passing it on. Living, dwelling and dying among these walls they inherited and carried on the knowledge and information needed to create the form. In the genuine reality of architecture the string strained in the two extremes, the Material and Idea has always been there. The divergence of the present experienced as falling apart does not present itself in the growing distance between them. Quite on the contrary. It is to be found in the threatening convergence of the extreme points.