Hermann Finsterlin. Il gioco come operazione dissacrante

The essay provides an overview on the works by visionary architect and intellectual Hermann Finsterlin, specifically analysing his use of ‘play’ as an essential tool for a critique against the traditional approach to architecture still adopted within the academies of fine art. The ‘Stilspiel’ is a patented toolbox for formally reproducing any architectural style of the past by playing with elementary solids. Trough his words and drawings, Finsterlin aims to inaugurate a new biological era for an organic development of the built space. Although he never actually built his architecture, the echo of his work resonates through time and seems to invest the designs by the architects of the decades to come, such as Jørn Utzon or, later on, Franck Gehry and Zaha Hadid.