The Roman author, Vitruvius, represented a codification and reduction of architecture through his book De Architectura, which was the only theoretical treatise that survived the classical era. The beauty and meaning of architecture should be a rational and mathematical order. The motions of the heavenly bodies, the cosmos, didn’t constitute the meaning of “cosmic space.” The public participation in cosmic, ritual spaces were excluded from the framework of human existence in the late eighteenth century. Humans desire order.
The liberation of the term techne, translated as craftsmanship, was dominated by the mechanization of the seventeenth century. Gomez quotes, “The techne of the Sophist’s logos concerned rhetoric and power over society, not power over nature” (Gómez 49). The term “sophist” refers to a teacher of philosophy in ancient Greece. For many centuries, machines and buildings were built to produce wonder rather than dominate nature. These buildings and machines were known as thaumata, a Greek word for miracle or wonder. The city, or the external reality, perceived as physis, translated as natural or being alive, was profoundly respected during the industrial revolution. Reducing architecture to material imitation, indicates a radical transformation of the perception of architecture. This change was suggested by Vitruvius. It can even be traced to Plato, who points out a passage from his book Republic, that art is the imitation of natural objects which are “but shadows or ideas or higher realities” (Gómez 49). The artist is shunned to copy a copy, or at best, to approximate the ideal.
Plato makes a distinction between techne and poiesis: techne is seen as a purely human activity and poiesis as the artistic creation of the poet. This techne was a technique of Vitruvius, since architecture carries a prosperity of instrumentalization and mathemata. Architects depended on rituals, a belief in the cosmos, a source of the transcendental order of formal relationships. After Plato’s techne, the craftsmen’s, or the architect’s, original technique becomes an opinion, or a doxa. This opposes true sciences and knowledge, or in Greek terms, episteme. Both Plato and Aristotle used the term “architects” as a person to guide craftsmen using operations ruled by mathematics. The architect and craftsman were divided. Greece was considered as a civilization of craftsmen in the fourth and fifth centuries, but it is paradoxical when the ideology of the ruling class denied the importance of craftsmen. In Homer’s work, he uses techne as metalsmithing, carpentry, and weaving. This was the know-how of demiourgoi, the meaning of craftsman or artisan.
Gómez considers Daedalus as the best pre-classical architect who was an artist and technician who possessed metis, or magic. Daedalus is a craftsman from Greek mythology and known for building the labyrinth at Knossos, which is considered one of the oldest cities in Europe. The word daidala is a verb for make, to manufacture, to forge, to weave, to place on, or to see. “It refers to objects such as gold, helmets, belts and other defensive weapons of Homeric warriors, and so furniture and ships” (Gomez 50). Homer and Hesiod clarified and expanded this term of daidala. The objects denoted by the term daidala can be categorized according to material: metal, wood, and cloth. Metalsmithing, wood working, and textile techniques were heightened, giving a techne to the term daidala. Homer believed that daidala possessed mysterious powers. Daidala reveals the reality it represents, a metaphysical “light” of diverse and bizarre qualities that can evoke fear and admiration. Gómez quotes, “Daidala, particulary with jewels, are endowed with charis (charisma) and thus with kelos (beauty) and amalga (festive religious exaltation)” (Gómez 50). The term charis is considered a god given grace and is a product of techne. It has a power of seduction. This make daedala dangerous, it is capable of creating illusions. Poets have the same ability of illusion at the level of apate, which translates to appearance. The ethical condition of techne, especially in architecture, was ambiguous to its earliest forms of articulation. In the bible, Cain, designated by god, was in charge of creating cities.
Daidala was considered as art objects that appear to be what they are not. Daidala enables inanimate matter to magically appear be alive; it reproduces life rather than representing it. In texts following Homer, Theogony by Hesiod gave a more figurative meaning to daidala. In the fifth century, daidalon become a mere image, an eikon of another reality. Daidala became a metaphoric reference. Architecture would produce qualities of a womb or a mountain. It imitated the transcendental emotion rather than the actual object. This ritual of a building was the architecture.
Whether it is Daedalus, daidala, or Daidalos, this fictional being was considered an architect. All ancient sources agree that this mythological being was an Athenian, son or grandson of Metion, this is the person that gave him metis (magic). He is known for his personality and his work in stories. He was a sculptor in Athens, inventor of the agalmata. Apparently, Daedalus’ sculptures were extremely lifelike with open eyes and moving limbs. He was also considered as an inventor. The saw, the axe, glue, and the plumb-line were all invented by Daedalus while residing in Athens. Daedalus was forced to leave Athens after he murdered is nephew Talos out of professional jealousy. So, moved to Crete, which is the modern name for Knossos, and worked under King Minos. After numerous achievements, Daedalus created a lifelike wooden cow covered with leather. Queen Pasiphae hid this sculpture to try to seduce a magnificent bull. Pasiphae was successful in seducing the bull and soon the queen gave birth to a minotaur. According to Gómez, “The Minotaur was a symbol of both the architect’s technical ability and this power to subvert the order of the world” (Gómez 51). This being, half bull and half human, had to be hidden but also must be found. Daedalus, using his metis, was led to design his labyrinth.
“The labyrinth is a metaphor of human existence: ever-changing, full of surprise, uncertain, conveying the impression of disorder, a gap between the only two certain points that it possesses, birth (entrance) and death (its center)” (Gómez 51). When architects present a labyrinth, it is perceived as disorder that is revealed as order. This idea of architectural order can be considered as the essence of cities and buildings. Seeing labyrinths as a symbol of overcoming mortality and a metaphor of knowledge is legitimate, but one could also see a labyrinth as a connection between primordial idea of architecture and ritual. A primeval dance. The space of architecture was the space of ritual. It wasn’t seen as a geometrical entity, an object. Seeing the labyrinth as a sort of dance was emphasized in the myth. After putting the minotaur in the labyrinth, Theseus killed it. Plutarch, a Greek-Roman biographer, said that after killing the minotaur, Theseus engaged in a dance with group of people ‘whose movement imitated the labyrinth.
Daedalus is an ambiguous being. He is an architect and a craftsman. He concealed a “monster” within a labyrinth and deceives a woman with a machine of leather and wood. He creates form and beauty, but also illusions. Gómez states, “This ambiguity, which is a part of the human condition, is as prevalent now as it was then” (Gómez 52). Daedalus was possessed with metis, which was manifested only through the act of creation. The architect was seldom in charge of major design projects within ancient Greece. Instead they were in charge of cutting stone, making templates, and supervising. In classical times, the oracle was the important figure to lay down the design work of the city. They were in charge of temples, buildings, and the foundation of the city. The divergence of divine order and human order is irreversible.
Man no longer sees existence as a personal participation in public space. There is a distance between man and the world, the distance of theoros. For the modern architect, making is the ritual. The making process is a form of self-knowledge, the metis; a magical phenomenon. Gómez quotes, “He seems to have no other option, whether he is performing a pantomimic dance (surrealism) or whether he believes himself to have created an autonomous system of gestures (abstraction)” (Gómez 52).
Gómez, A.P. (1981) The myth of daedalus. London: Architectural Association.