Structure and Fragment in Architectural Practice

Abstract

Since the last decades of the previous century, image production has increased more rapidly than in any other history phase. The visual culture environment has become dominant and affected architectural practices. The linear process that begins with an idea and ends with an end-product has disappeared. This study explores an al- ternative way of looking at the architectural practice, understanding its processes and products. By defining two concepts, “fragment” and “structure,” and question- ing their relationship as a pair, this study argues that; Each image is both a struc- ture and a fragment. Fragments establish various structures by associating with oth- er fragments while the structures break down into various fragments that go forever. Attention and responsiveness to each other, the communication of the fragment and the structure becomes a richer exchange, more cooperative, more dialogic. Thus, they provide a broader perspective to comprehend and interpret the present day’s architec- tural practice through its objects and images. The relationship between the fragment and the structure that this essay focuses on is not a kind of dialog in which parties preserve themselves while they communicate, nor the fragment and structure have a part-whole relationship. Instead, this study focuses on the intellectual outputs of structure and fragment that construct and reconstruct themselves in a dialogic rela- tionship within this context.