Survey of Architectural Typologies of the Islamic World

IAAU 625
Instructor: Akel Ismail Kahera, Ph.D.
Student: Aymen Aiblu

Reading & Reflection on Rafael Moneo

"On Typology"

Rafael Moneo has divided his article into five parts. Firstly he started with raising the

question of typology in architecture and referred while doing so, one would automatically raise

a question of the nature of architectural work itself.

Then he mentioned that from one side, the work of architecture is unrepeatable. They are a

single phenomenon, irreducible within any classification. While on the other side, the work of

architecture could be seen as belonging to a class of repeated objects, characterized by some

general attributes.

Moneo defined type as a concept that describes a group of objects characterized by the same

formal structure. In short, type means the act of thinking in groups. He carried on with defining

architecture as not only "described" by types, but also produced through them, then elaborated

a little bit more and went on to explain the design process as a "way of bringing the elements of

a typology – the idea of a formal structure – into the precise state that characterize the single

work." (Opposition, 1978)

The author attempted to define the "formal structure." In which it has a series of opposing

definitions, beginning from the aspects of the "Gestalt," which it would mean speaking about

centrality or linearity, clusters or grids, characterizing form in terms of a more profound

geometry, after that, he supported his explanation with a bird-eye photo of El-Oued city in Al-

Geria. (Opposition, 1978)

According to Moneo, the concept of type is open to change; The architect can change the use

of type; he can distort different type by transforming scale; he can overlap different types to

produce new ones. Also, he can use formal quotations of a known type in a different context

and create a new type by a radical change in the techniques already used.

Secondly, the author mentioned that the most intensive moments in architectural

development are those when a new type appears. When a new type emerges, that means the

architect's contribution has reached the level of generality and anonymity that characterizes

architecture as a discipline.

Rafael Moneo mentioned that the type expressed the permanence in the unique object which

connected to the past in a renewed identification of the condition of that object. Then the author

explained Durand's perspective towards architecture and mentioned that the classical orders of

architectural façade should be seen as mere decoration, and supported his explanation by

presenting a combination of façade projects by Durand in 1809. (Opposition, 1978)

According to the author in his third part, he mentioned that at the beginning of the

twentieth century, the theoreticians of the modern movement rejected the idea of type, where

for them it was immobility, which means a set of restrictions imposed on the architect who

should be able to act with complete freedom on the object.

Moneo said that "Mies van der Rohe" was neither disturbed by functions nor materials, yet he

was a builder of form-space. Then Rafael claimed that the work of Le Corbusier transformed

the word "type" from abstraction to reality in architecture, and to show that, he presented the

project of "La Ville Contemporaine" by Le Corbusier in 1922. (Opposition, 1978)

 In the fourth part, Rafael Moneo declared that after the failure of the modern movement

to use type in terms of the city, in the 1960s, a series of writings started to appear which called

for a theory to explain the formal and structural continuity of traditional cities.

In conclusion, the author addressed an important question; Ultimately, does it make

sense to speak of type today?

To understand the question of type is to understand the nature of the architectural object today.

It is a question that cannot be avoided since the architectural object can no longer be considered

as a single, but surrounded by the world and its history.

Bibliography
• Opposition, Rafael Moneo, MIT Press, Summer 1978: 13, p. 23, 24, 29, 33.