Bruno zevi and the “organic space”.

The notion of meaning, aesthetic value, perception and function.

Abstract

In a context of criticism of the formalist aspects that the most mechanistic lines of modern architecture would incur, different proposals arose -around the middle of the twentieth century- that aim at a reintegration of art or the aesthetic dimension into architecture, among them: the so-called organicism. Bruno Zevi, leader of the organic movement in Italy, summons some notions such as interior space or organic space, in order to rescue modern architecture from the stagnation resulting from its conventionalization. In this article we do not intend to make history but to understand -using highly agreed notions that we borrow from pragmatics and critical theory- what is the concept of space that Zevi attends to, why he refers to it using the term organic, and why it is linked to a criterion of functionality. We analyze this notion of space interpreting the writings of Zevi. We delve into his idea of the organic in connection with the ideas of Walter Curt Behrendt, with respect to which he accuses influence. We will review his idea of functionality by comparing his proposal for the reintegration of the aesthetic into architecture with the one formulated by his contemporary Sigfried Giedion. Our thesis is that Bruno Zevi rejects functionalist rationalism as formalist, but he does so using a concept of practical functionality that must be understood as a conventional meaning or as a cultural reference.