On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time [Paperback]

On Weathering illustrates the complex nature of the architectural project by taking into account its temporality, linking technical problems of maintenance and decay with a focused consideration of their philosophical and ethical implications.In a clear and direct account supplemented by many photographs commissioned for this book, Mostafavi and Leatherbarrow examine buildings and other projects from Alberti to Le Corbusier to show that the continual refinishing of the building by natural forces adds to, rather than detracts from, architectural meaning. Their central discovery, that weathering makes the final state of the construction necessarily indefinite, challenges the conventional notion of a building's completeness. By recognizing the inherent uncertainty and inevitability of weathering and by viewing the concept of weathering as a continuation of the building process rather than as a force antagonistic to it, the authors offer alternative readings of historical constructions and potential beginnings for new architectural projects.

This is a delightful and even brilliant essay on a largely neglected theme in architecture. Outside of technical literature, few architectural historians, theorists, or critics have considered the material consequences of the temporal dimension with respect to either the making or the experience of architecture. Leatherbarrow and Mostafavi make this theme a theoretical investigation, in the very best sense of that increasingly problematic enterprise.

From Ancient Rome to the present, a broad range of examples are marshaled for the purpose of illuminating contemporary practice and understanding. The most profound examples (Palazzo Zuccari, Brion Cemetery) transform the practical necessities into rich metaphor, whereby stains become the basis of light, aging of metamorphosis and renewal. This, finally, is seen to exemplify an approach not only to the processes and meanlă!